Trump Says U.S. to Lift Steel, Aluminum Duties on Canada, Mexico

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump Friday said the U.S. will lift steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico in a move that will help clear the way for ratification of the new Nafta.

The deal to lift tariffs takes effect no later than two days after the announcement, people familiar with the matter said.

Minutes before Trump’s announcement in Washington, Canada said in a joint statement that the U.S. would drop tariffs and Canada would drop retaliatory duties.

The move would lift the 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariffs the U.S. placed on the two trading neighbors almost a year ago in the name of national security. The decision sparked retaliatory duties from Canada and Mexico on U.S. farming goods and other products, and left the potential that lawmakers in all three nations wouldn’t ratify the new trade deal.

As part of the agreement to scrap the levies, the U.S. will be able to impose new tariffs on Canada and Mexico if they don’t do enough to prevent any surge of imports of the metals, the U.S. and Canada said in a joint statement Friday. The nations have also all agreed to ramp up efforts to trace where the metals have come from originally, to stop the diversion of shipments from other nations to dodge the tariffs.

--With assistance from Joe Deaux and Josh Wingrove.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alyza Sebenius in Washington at asebenius@bloomberg.net;Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Joshua Gallu

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