WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday temporarily excluded six countries and the European Union from higher import duties on steel and aluminum due to come into effect on Friday.
In a presidential proclamation issued late Thursday, Trump said he would suspended steel tariffs for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the European Union until May 1, 2018 amid ongoing discussions. United States was set to begin imposing import duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum from Friday.
"I have determined that the necessary and appropriate means to address the threat to the national security posed by imports from steel articles from these countries is to continue these discussions and to exempt steel articles imports from these countries from the tariff, at least at this time," according to the proclamation published by the White House on Thursday.