AMN / WEB DESK
President Donald Trump Thursday announced holding up for four weeks his new 25% tariffs on most Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States, following fear of financial impact on his country.
Trump latest maneuver in a North American trade war has plunged stock indexes for days and roiled U.S. relations with its longtime allies and two biggest trading partners.
Trump first delayed the tariffs on Mexican imports to the U.S. until April 2 after hearing directly from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on how her government had helped curb the flow of migrants and the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States — two demands made by Trump on the country’s southern neighbor.
Hours later, he also paused the new duties on Canada, although what happens to the tariffs in a month on either country is unknown. Trump’s latest actions came a day after he paused the tariffs on vehicle imports from the two countries after the three biggest U.S. automakers said the tariffs would have a severe financial impact on them.
But investors cast an early verdict on Trump’s days of whipsawing action, engaging in a broad sell-off because of the financial uncertainty. The three major U.S. stock markets dropped again on Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average down by more than a percentage point, the broader S&P 500 off nearly 2%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ plunging by almost 3%.
Trump said, in executive orders, that the tariffs will not be imposed on Mexican or Canadian goods imported by U.S. companies that fall under a trade agreement he reached with the two countries in 2018 during his first term in the White House.
In a post on his Truth Social social media platform, Trump said he eased the tariffs on Mexican goods “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.”
Trump ended the post by saying “Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!”
In a statement on Thursday, Sheinbaum said “We agreed that our work and collaboration have yielded unprecedented results, within the framework of respect for our sovereignties.”
Later, at a news conference, she said that during a Thursday phone call, Trump at first wanted his tariffs to stay in place.
But Sheinbaum said she gave him examples of the results she had achieved in the past month, including how Mexico limited the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and how Mexican authorities had sent 29 top cartel operatives wanted by American officials to the United States. She also dispatched 10,000 troops to Mexico’s northern border to try to halt the flow of migrants and drugs into the United States.