Yes, from my perspective, you've described that feeling very clearly. When the U.S. put on those tariffs against Canada on steel and aluminum on national security grounds, when we have such a close alliance with the U.S. on defence issues and anything to do with national security, I think it's fair to say that we did feel it was a bit of an insult. We do not, in any measure, pose a security threat to the U.S. and, in particular, we don't pose a security threat to them with our steel and aluminum exports to their market.
We've had a fairly balanced trade with the U.S., particularly in steel. We happen to produce more aluminum than they do, but we've exported that without any kind of difficulty for many years. We are not a back door for subsidized steel coming from other countries like China and others. We've been a loyal trading partner and have worked closely with the U.S. on protecting the North American market.
From our perspective, there was no way we could accept an outcome in the context of a free trade negotiation where we would have national security tariffs applied against our steel and aluminum, so we made it very clear early on in those discussions that we could not have a conclusion to this negotiation with those tariffs remaining in place. It was simply entirely inconsistent with a free trade agreement to have those tariffs in place.
We insisted that those had to be removed. To this point, though, we continue, along with Mexico, to be the only countries that really have any kind of exemption from those steel and aluminum tariffs. They are applied across the world to most other suppliers. Some have negotiated exemptions, but they've paid for them in various ways. We have not.
The steel and aluminum sector has been a North American market, particularly between us and the U.S., for many years.
We've found it to be fundamentally unjust and insisted that they be removed before we completed this negotiation.