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The Trump administration will delay tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada under the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade treaty for almost one month to April 2, President Trump announced on Thursday.
“After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!”
The announcement came the day after Trump gave three major U.S. automakers a one-month reprieve from the Mexico-Canada tariffs too.
After April 2, Trump may move forward with "reciprocal tariffs" on products from many other nations.
Trump originally planned to tariff Canadian and Mexican goods on Feb. 1 to push the U.S. neighbors to do more stop migration and drug trafficking — but then delayed them by a month. Then last week, he told reporters he was looking at April 2 as a start date for the tariffs — before reversing and putting them in place on March 4."
Canada and Mexico may avert the 25% tariffs beyond April 2, if they show they have made more progress curbing fentanyl trafficking, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call ahead of the signing, speaking on condition of anonymity told NPR.
Sheinbaum said her conversation with Trump was "respectful," and that she walked Trump through a set of his own government's statistics showing a huge drop in the amount of fentanyl being seized by border authorities.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Trump on Wednesday evening. He later told reporters that Canada expected a trade war with the U.S. "for the foreseeable future."
The Trump call with the Mexican president came days after Sheinbaum said that her country would unveil retaliatory tariffs against the United States this weekend. She has called Trump's moves to enact 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada a no-win situation. Sheinbaum now plans a celebration instead of a mass rally condemning Trump's tariffs.
Sofía Ramírez, general director of the think tank México ¿Cómo Vamos?, said Mexico has more to lose when it comes to a trade war. It would face the potential loss of millions of jobs — pushing more people into migration or criminal networks.
Economic experts like Ray Perryman, the president of the Perryman Group, an economic research company, said a good chunk of additional costs caused by tariffs would be offset onto consumers.
The effects were expected to be felt at grocery stores, particularly with perishable fruits and veggies. Gas prices were also expected to increase.
"We think it would add about $1,500 to the cost of goods for an average household," Perryman explained, "when you factor in the inflation impact as well as the impact it's going to have on our supply chains."
NPR and Houston Public Media's Lucio Vasquez contributed to this report.
