Trump administration economic adviser Larry Kudlow is reportedly working to remove Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico, after a Canadian minister told media last week that his government may not ratify the USMCA trade deal if the tariffs are not removed.
“Ambassador Lighthizer and his group, we are working on that, we are hard at work on that, to solve that issue,” Kudlow said of the tariff removal, while participating in a panel at the National Governors Association’s winter meeting in Washington on Sunday.
According to a report from Bloomberg News, Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau was also on the panel, and said the tariffs are no longer needed now that the three countries have signed the USMCA.
“Those tariffs are an unnecessary tax which is weighing down on both countries,” said Garneau, adding that the original US justification for tariffs on national security grounds was “never justified.”
“This will present us with real challenges as we begin the process of ratification in Canada — I don’t know if we are going to get there,” Garneau said.
Canada implemented dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs against the US, and Garneau said Canada would “quickly drop” its own tariffs against US steel and aluminum if the US excludes Canada from the Section 232 tariffs.
Canada would quickly drop its metals tariffs and ratify the agreement in response to a U.S. move, Garneau said. “We want to go ahead and do it because this is very good for both of our countries,” Garneau said of ratifying the trade agreement.
Mexican officials have also reportedly urged the US to exclude the country from the tariffs, while a coalition of US business, agricultural and trade groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter in January asking Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to remove the tariffs from USMCA trading partners.