WASHINGTON (Reuters)-US President Donald Trump is considering protecting sectors such as US tariff automakers and his government will announce on Wednesday about the tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico, the US Department of Trade Department said.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, said Trump would make the final decision on the granting of relief to certain sectors. He said the 25% tariff charged from Canada and Mexico would remain, with the aim of renegotiating a pact with the two neighboring countries next year.
“The president can make the decision,” said the secretary. “But our expectation is that they are categories. It will be 25%, but will be – there will be some categories that will be left out. It is quite possible that the cars are. It may be that others are also left out. ”
Lutnick said the government is analyzing the US-Mixico-Canada agreement on trade and if certain sectors had fulfilled the agreement enacted in Trump’s first term. Asked if the cars could receive an exemption from the rates that came into force on Tuesday, Lutnick told Bloomberg, “It’s not really an exemption.”
The head of the trade department did not say when the announcement would be made on Wednesday, and Trump has no public events scheduled after his congress speech on Tuesday night.
Lutnick first presented the idea of tariff exemption for companies that follow USMCA’s origin rules on Tuesday, a few hours after Trump imposed 25% punitive tariffs on all imports in Canada and Mexico and an extra 10% tariff over Chinese products.
Continues after advertising
Trump stated that the three countries have not yet done enough to interrupt the flow of fentanyl and precursor chemicals from deadly opioid to the US, a accusation discarded by Canada as “completely false.”
Tariffs represent extreme difficulties for automakers, who produce vehicles in all three countries and often send parts through US borders several times as they are transformed into finished systems and vehicles.
