Steel coils are seen in a yard at ArcelorMittal Dofasco's steel mill on June 9, in Hamilton, Ont.

The United States has quietly opened the door to lowering tariffs on some Canadian steel and aluminum exports – a move that stops short of the kind of relief Ottawa is pursuing, but which signals a shift in how the Trump administration is approaching trade policy.

In an executive order published last month, President Donald Trump gave the U.S. Department of Commerce discretion to lower tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico by up to half if certain conditions are met.

To get the exemption – which has the potential to lower the tariff rate to 25 per cent from 50 per cent – a steel or aluminum company must be expanding its production footprint in the United Stat

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