WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump might extend Canada’s exemption from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs if NAFTA talks go well, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday.Trump granted Canada and Mexico an additional 30-day exemption to the tariffs on April 30, lasting until June 1. His administration said then that these would be the “final” 30 days for talks on the matter. Ross signalled that Trump is open to a longer reprieve.“Depending where we are with NAFTA on June 1, the president will decide whether or not to extend their situation. So it’s un-forecastable at the moment,” he said at the National Press Club in Washington.Joseph Galimberti, president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said Ross’s remark was “encouraging.”The official basis for the tariffs is “national security,” but Trump and his officials have continued to make clear that his chief rationale was economic. He has sought from the beginning to use the tariff threat against Canada and Mexico as a weapon in the negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement.The steel tariff is 25 per cent, the aluminum tariff 10 per cent. Canada’s steel industry is concentrated in Ontario, its aluminum industry in Quebec.Top trade officials from Canada and Mexico are at home this week after a week of NAFTA negotiations in Washington last week. Though the U.S. is seeking a deal this month, the talks appear to be stuck over a U.S.proposal to attempt to wrest some auto manufacturing away from Mexico.Ross said all of the “big hot topics — the rules of origin, the sunset provision, the dispute resolution provision, labour things, big topics like that...are still a work in progress.”“And those are very complex issues, particularly rules of origin. So it eventually will come down to every comma, every semicolon, everything, before we can figure out if it’s something that’s work ...
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