After meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington yesterday, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland warned that the US steel tariffs raised serious questions on support for ratification of the new NAFTA, now known as USMCA.
She said “the existence of these tariffs for many Canadians raises some serious questions about NAFTA ratification”. And, “in order to move ahead with that deal, I think Canadians feel the right thing is, there should be no 232 tariffs or retaliatory tariffs between our two countries.”
Freeland raised the issue to Lighthizer clearly and emphasized “these tariffs are completely unacceptable to Canada,” repeating the words “illegal,” “unjustified” and “absurd” several times in describing them.
