Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister has responded to the news that the U-S is temporarily exempting Canada and Mexico from punitive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Chrystia Freeland called the decision "logical and the right one".
U-S President Donald Trump utilized a national security provision to launch the tariffs, which Freeland said made no sense.
"It's inconcievable that Canada, which is full partner of the U-S in Norad, in NATO, is by U-S law a part of the defense industrial base. It's inconcievable that we can represent a threat", said Freeland during a news conference.
Trump danced around the question of whether the threat of tariffs will be used to bully Canada and Mexico at the NAFTA bargaining table.
He said only that the reprieve remains in place for now, and that NAFTA is important to economic and national security.
Freeland, who's also heading up NAFTA renegotiations, added Canada's in favour of "modernizing this agreement and we think that there is a lot of great work to be done and we think a win-win-win outcome is absolutely possible".
The tariffs, 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, go into effect for the rest of the globe in 15 days.
-Files from The Canadain Press and The Associated Press