Less than 24 hours after initiating 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, President Donald Trump may be changing his mind.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday afternoon the president may work out a deal with the countries to meet them in the middle on tariffs. Lutrnick said the tariffs would not be paused, as they were for a month in February, but that some product categories might be exempted from the new tariffs.
Wednesday morning, Lutnick told Bloomberg the president was thinking about a plan and would decide in the afternoon whether to provide relief.
Lutnick said, “The president gets to make the decision.”
Lutnick said autos could be among the product categories exempted from the new tariffs. The Commerce secretary talked only about auto exemptions and not about motor vehicles, a category that could include RVs among the exemptions.
CNN reported the president and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were scheduled to speak this morning. The conversation would come a day after Trudeau held a news conference, saying the U.S. tariffs were “dumb” and accusing the president of appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to cut off electricity exported to 1.5 million U.S. homes in Michigan, Minnesota and New York. The Associated Press (AP) reported that Lutnick called Ford and asked him to stand down. An AP source said Ford told Lutnick he would instead go harder.
