LA MALBAIE: A move by the United States to explore tariffs on auto imports is based on flimsy logic and is clearly linked to talks to modernise the Nafta trade pact, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday.

Trudeau told Reuters in an interview that although the administration of US President Donald Trump had raised the idea of auto tariffs, there was no guarantee the punitive measures would ever actually be imposed.

The Trump administration said on Wednesday it had launched a national security investigation into car and truck imports that could lead to new US tariffs similar to those imposed on imported steel and aluminum recently. Canada rejects any idea it could be a threat to the United States. “I am — even more than I was with steel and aluminum – trying to figure out where a possible national security connection is,” Trudeau said.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018