According to ABC, Mnuchin told the president during a meeting Tuesday that Canada ought to be exempt, in part because the U.S. has a US$2 billion steel surplus with the country.

The meeting follows Mnuchin’s return home from a meeting of G-7 finance leaders, who roundly rebuked Trump and the United States for imposing the tariffs.
 
“We’re concerned that these actions are actually not conducive to helping our economy, they actually are destructive, and that is consistently held across the six countries that expressed their point of view to Secretary Mnuchin,” Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said during a news conference after the meeting ended, the Reuters news service reported.