A deal with the Trump administration for tariff relief on Canadian steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. is likely to happen soon, says a former top Canadian trade negotiator.

Tim Sargent was Ottawa's deputy minister of international trade from 2016 to 2018, while the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was being negotiated during Donald Trump's first term as president.

Sargent told an audience in Washington on Wednesday that there is a renewed impetus to the negotiations on steel and aluminum since Trump hosted Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House earlier this month.

"It's in the U.S.'s economic self-interest to come to an agreement on these areas," Sargent said during a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.

"Both

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