U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Tuesday the Trump administration was looking for “a way out” of the steel and aluminum tariffs it has imposed on Canada and Mexico.
He declined to say, though, what obstacle was holding the administration back.
The White House is under serious pressure from lawmakers to lift the tariffs against Canada and Mexico in exchange for their support for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, a key part of President Trump’s trade agenda. Lawmakers argue the tariffs are doing too much harm to domestic industries.
On Tuesday, Lighthizer indicated that the White House recognized that the tariffs were a roadblock to USMCA’s passage. “On steel and aluminum, as you know, we’re in discussions with them and trying to find a way out of that dilemma for them and for us,” he told the Senate Finance Committee.
Canada and Mexico were initially exempted from the administration’s tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum when the levies were first implemented last year, but the White House lifted the exemptions later in the year in order to pressure the countries during the negotiations over USMCA. It was widely assumed the exemptions would be restored after the USMCA deal was reached, but the White House has thus far refused to do that.
White House officials, including Lighthizer, have argued instead that allowing exemptions undermines the intent of the tariffs. Last month, he told the House Ways and Means Committee that the administration was concerned about “maintaining the integrity of the steel and aluminum program.”
However, others in the administration have indicated that the impasse over the tariffs on Canada and Mexico is a concern. “We are hard at work at solving that issue,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told the National Governors Association late last month.
