Trump says decision on steel imports will take more time

President Trump said a possible crackdown on imported steel for national security reasons is still in the works but will take more time.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on Tuesday that “we don’t want to do it at this moment” and said the Commerce Department’s plans to produce a report by the end of June were hampered by the complexity of the issue.

{mosads}“You can’t just walk in and say I’m doing to do this,” Trump said. “You have to do statutory studies … It doesn’t go that quickly.”

The president didn’t say when a decision would be made on how to proceed.

The WSJ said that Trump started to say he would make a move “very” soon but stopped himself and instead said “fairly soon.”

“We’re going to be addressing the steel dumping,” Trump said.

He said the steel issue is “a very unfair situation.”

Trump recently told reporters that he may slap both tariffs and quotas on countries he thinks are endangering the nation’s security as part of his campaign promise to better protect domestic steel producers.

The results of a Commerce Department investigation were due at the end of June but the long-awaited decision about what to do about steel has been bogged down by widespread opposition from business groups, trading partners and infighting within the White House.

Once the investigation does finally hit his desk, Trump will have to determine whether to assess penalties under Section 232 of a 1962 trade law that gives the president the power to apply higher tariffs on imported steel for national security reasons.

Opponents warn any new tariffs on imported steel would have widespread negative effects from damaging the U.S. economy to threatening vital trading relationships.

Trump said a final decision on a steel will probably remain in a holding pattern until work on other major initiatives move forward.

“We’re waiting till we get everything finished up between healthcare and taxes and maybe even infrastructure,” he said. 

Some trade experts argue that an increase in steel prices caused by any new taxes would probably restrict a significant overhaul the nation’s infrastructure.

While the president said he wants to improve the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) he still kept in play the possibility that he would pull the U.S. out of the 23-year-old agreement if talks fail with Mexico and Canada.

“We’re in the middle of a renegotiation right now, so we’ll see,” Trump said. “Maybe we’ll have to terminate it.”

But he acknowledged that NAFTA could be successfully reworked.

“It may be salvageable … I have an obligation to give it a shot.”

Official NAFTA talks are set to start Aug. 16 in Washington.