"The policy decision has been made to postpone that until the tax bill," Ross said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television, when asked about his department's review of the national-security implications of steel imports.

Commerce will give President Donald Trump a range of options when it reports its findings on the steel investigation. But overhauling the tax system is the “single most important”’ thing on the administration’s agenda, one that will drive job creation, he said.

“It’s not so much a question of backing away, it’s a question of timing,” Ross said earlier Friday in an interview on CNBC, in which he was asked repeatedly about when his department would announce trade decisions, including on steel. “Tax is extremely important because that’s the biggest single incremental factor in getting growth over 3 percent,” he said.

The administration doesn’t want to “unnecessarily irritate” lawmakers as it builds support for a bill to overhaul taxes, Ross said.

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