Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Wednesday that countries might be able to negotiate their way out of President Trump’s proposed steel and aluminum tariffs, just as Canada and Mexico might be exempted as part of a new North American Free Trade Agreement deal.
“The president indicated that if we can work something out with Canada and Mexico, they will be exempted,” Ross told Bloomberg on Wednesday morning.
“It’s not inconceivable that others could be exempted on a similar basis,” he said.
“We have to solve the problems,” he added. “We need to solve the NAFTA problem. We need to solve the overcapacity and overproduction problem. We’re going to get them solved and we’re going to get them solved without blowing up the world.”
His remarks are a sign that the Trump administration could be thinking of a way to pare back Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum, after major U.S. trading partners called the move a mistake. Congressional Republicans are also pushing Trump to reassess his position, and have warned the tariffs could spark a trade war that hurts U.S. and global growth.
On CNBC, Ross again noted that Trump has indicated “a degree of flexibility” by giving Canada and Mexico a way out, and said again the U.S. is looking for a constructive way to solve the problem of global steel overcapacity.
“I think you’re going to see … that we’re not trying to blow up the world, there’s no intention of that,” he said.
