Canadian Official Says Canadian Ratification of New NAFTA Difficult With Section 232 Tariffs

Canadian Minister for International Trade Diversification James Carr said Canada is "following with great interest" what the Senate Finance Committee chairman and other Republicans senators are saying about Section 232 tariffs. "We will see how they decide to work that out," he said at the Council of the Americas conference May 7. He said that even though none of the countries got everything they wanted in the new NAFTA, Canada's government wants to see it ratified. "We negotiated for 14 months in good faith, we found alignment with our trading partners, we want to see it ratified. There are irritants, though, and the 232 tariffs on the steel and aluminum -- which we believe to be unwarranted -- are a real problem. It's going to be difficult to ratify the agreement as long as those tariffs are in place." He said Canadians are talking with U.S. counterparts about the tariffs, "and we hope they will be removed."