WASHINGTON — U. S. President Donald Trump has three days to decide if he’ll hit Canada with steel and aluminum tariffs, and the Canadian government is again hinting at retaliation if he does.

“Our government always is very ready and very prepared to respond appropriately to every action. We are always prepared and ready to defend our workers and our industry,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in Washington on Tuesday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, shown last week in Ottawa, said Tuesday that the Canadian government is “always prepared and ready to defend our workers and our industry.”Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, shown last week in Ottawa, said Tuesday that the Canadian government is “always prepared and ready to defend our workers and our industry.” (SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)

“Canadian steelworkers should absolutely know that the government of Canada has their back,” she said.

Freeland had a two-hour meeting with Trump trade chief Robert Lighthizer. She said they talked about the tariff threat, but she would not say what Lighthizer told her.

Trump temporarily exempted Canada from the tariffs — 25 per cent on steel, 10 per cent on aluminum — when he announced them in March, and then granted an extension of the exemption that is set to end Friday. His administration described the extension as “final,” but Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross later hinted that Trump might offer another extension if NAFTA talks were going well.

Freeland said the Canadian government considers the tariff issue “entirely separate from the NAFTA negotiation.” She said it “just doesn’t make sense” to subject Canada, a close U.S. ally, to a tariff whose official justification is national security.

Freeland issued a similar retaliation threat when Trump began threatening the tariffs, saying in March that Canada would respond to tariffs with “measures to defend its trade interests and workers.”

The president of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, Joseph Galimberti, said Tuesday that he has been given no information about where the talks stand.

Freeland plans to visit Washington for two days. She said a primary focus of her meeting with Lighthizer was NAFTA rules governing automotive trade. Negotiations on the continental trade pact appear to have stalled over Mexico’s unhappiness with a Lighthizer proposal designed to wrest some auto manufacturing back to the U.S.

Canada now faces a second tariff threat from the U.S. Last week, Trump announced his administration would begin looking at the possibility of a tariff — also on supposed national security grounds — on foreign cars and auto parts.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed “strong concerns” about Trump’s move in a phone call with the president on Friday, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Freeland said she did not discuss the matter with Lighthizer, since it is Ross’s responsibility.