Treasury Secretary urging Trump to exempt Canada from steel and aluminium tariffs - ABC News

Headlines are hitting the markets that Treasury Secretary has urged Trump to exempt Canada from steel and aluminium tariffs: Sources

The news comes from ABC News stating that at a White House trade meeting on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged President Donald Trump to exempt Canada from steep steel and aluminium tariffs, two senior administration officials and two sources close to the White House told ABC News:

"Mnuchin presented the option to Trump in a meeting of the administration’s most senior economic policymakers, including director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Trade advisor Peter Navarro, trade representative Robert Lighthizer and chief of staff John Kelly."

After returning from the G-7 finance ministers summit in Canada, Mnuchin made the case that the U.S. has a $2 billion steel surplus with Canada and a nearly $26 billion services surplus, and should consider making an exemption for its northern neighbor, according to the sources.

But not all of the advisers were in agreement," the article explained, according to two sources familiar with the conversations. "They say the group has been known to harbor ideological differences on major economic issues and the meeting adjourned without any clear resolution to the matter."

“He’s still deciding on what to do about Canada,” said one senior administration official on the President’s response to the request for leniency."

This news follows earlier news that White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow was speaking to Fox News saying that Trump has been considering whether to split the Nafta talks into separate negotiations with Mexico and Canada. However, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the deadline for congressional approval of a new trade deal had likely run out. This points to there not being a Nafta 2.0 until 2019. 

Also, today, Republican Senate foreign relations chair, Corker, said that both the Republican and Democratic Senators are seeking to present a bill that will force Trump to obtain congressional approval for imposing tariffs on national security grounds. This follows weekend talks with China where they attempted to negotiate their way out from the punitive tariffs on US$50 billion of Chinese imports and restrictions on investment in the American hi-tech industry.