Despite progress, threat of 232 tariffs dominates NAFTA negotiations
WASHINGTON — Despite the eye-popping figures thrown around in the NAFTA conversation — $2 billion in daily trade, 18 million autos built each year, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. — one number in particular seems to be giving fits to Canada’s negotiating team: 232.
That’s the section of U.S. trade law that lets President Donald Trump use national security as justification to impose crippling tariffs on foreign imports, a sword of Damocles the federal Liberal government desperately wants to blunt.
Sources say Thursday’s talks between Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. trade ambassador Robert Lighthizer were dominated by efforts to secure a commitment from the Americans that a new NAFTA deal would mitigate the risk of such tariffs.
“232 is emerging as the major problem,” said one source close to the talks, speaking freely on condition of anonymity.