MEXICO CITY — The presidents of Mexico and the US stated Thursday that punishing new tariffs on Mexican items exported throughout the border can be delay for 90 days as the 2 nations proceed negotiations on the contentious levies.
Phrase of the reprieve got here a day after South Korea introduced a commerce pact with the U.S. and as international locations worldwide scrambled to hammer out commerce offers by Friday, the day President Trump stated new tariffs would take impact.
It was the only real exception to a deadline Trump stated would deliver hefty price hikes to different, main buying and selling companions of the US, together with Brazil, Canada and India, amongst dozens of different nations which have to date declined to enter framework commerce agreements on strict phrases set by the president.
Earlier this week, Trump wrote on social media: “THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE IS THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE — IT STANDS STRONG, AND WILL NOT BE EXTENDED.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick instructed Fox Information the identical on Sunday: “No extensions, no extra grace durations. Aug. 1, the tariffs are set, they’ll go into place.”
However that didn’t occurred, at the very least not in Mexico. The long-awaited announcement of a delay got here after Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had a morning phone dialog, the newest in a sequence of cellphone calls wherein the Mexican chief has urged her U.S. counterpart to not impose extra tariffs on her nation — the US’ largest buying and selling companion.
Trump referred to as the cellphone dialog “very profitable” in a publish on Fact Social, including: “Increasingly more, we’re attending to know and perceive one another.” The 2 North American leaders have but to fulfill in individual.
In her morning information convention, a clearly relieved Sheinbaum solid the postponement as a serious victory for Mexico. “We now have 90 days to maintain on speaking with President Trump,” declared a smiling Sheinbaum. “It was an excellent settlement. We stay the place we’re.”
In his feedback, Trump stated that many Mexican imports would proceed to face a 25% tariff that the president has stated is required to drive Mexico to chop down on smuggling of fentanyl, the artificial opioid linked to tens of 1000’s of deaths in the US.
Whereas Trump held off on a deliberate 30% tariff on some Mexican imports, he declined to revise his present tariff routine, which Mexican officers view as egregious and dangerous to the economic system. Trump was agency that Washington would proceed to cost the levies that he had already imposed — together with the 25% “fentanyl tariff.” Mexican officers say their enforcement actions have resulted in a drastic drop in fentanyl trafficking.
Additionally to be retained, Trump stated, can be a 25% tariff on auto imports and a 50% tax on imports from Mexico of metal, aluminum and copper. Mexico, Trump stated, had agreed to “instantly terminate” its non-tariff commerce limitations. It was not instantly clear what insurance policies he was referring to.
Mexican officers are searching for to cut back or get rid of Trump tariffs on a wide selection of products. These embrace a 17% tariff imposed in mid-July on some $3 billion in annual tomato exports to the US.
Sheinbaum stated that her nation’s “cool headed” method to negotiating with the U.S. had succeeded in holding off extra crippling tariffs whereas additionally defending “our ideas with firmness.”
Mexico had managed to barter a privileged place within the “new international business order” launched by the Trump administration and his protectionist commerce dictates, she stated.
“We now have the very best settlement, together with when in comparison with different nations,” Sheinbaum stated.
This week Trump has continued to make tariffs a centerpiece of his overseas coverage, utilizing them to precise his displeasure with allies in addition to adversaries. On Wednesday, he stated the U.S. would impose 25% tariffs on items from India. That very same day he signed an government order to put 50% tariffs on Brazil, beginning subsequent week.
On Thursday, Trump stated that Canada’s choice to acknowledge a Palestinian state would make it more durable to succeed in a take care of America’s northern neighbor.
“Wow! Canada has simply introduced that it’s backing statehood for Palestine,” Trump wrote on Fact Social. “That may make it very arduous for us to make a Commerce Take care of them. Oh’ Canada!!!”
The Trump administration and Canadian authorities have remained at loggerheads over Trump’s threats of latest tariffs.
This 12 months’s protracted U.S.-Mexico commerce drama has seen the on-again, off-again tariff threats from Trump sounding recurrent alarms of a Mexican financial collapse. All through, Sheinbaum has burdened the worth of negotiation over confrontation, refusing to strike again rhetorically at Trump’s verbal provocations.
“President Trump has his personal means of speaking,” Sheinbaum has stated on a number of events.
On Thursday, Sheinbaum burdened that Mexico had managed to protect, for now, the 2020 North American free-trade deal — the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement — signed into legislation by Trump throughout his first time period. The pact permits duty-free entry of most Mexican items into the US and Canada.
The settlement is a linchpin of the Mexican economic system. Mexico has change into an export-dependent nation in latest many years, and the US accounts for greater than 80% of the nation’s exports. U.S. whole items traded with Mexico topped $839 billion in 2024, based on U.S. figures.
“T-MEC has been safeguarded,” Sheinbaum stated, utilizing the Spanish acronym for the commerce accord, often called USMCA in English. “That is essential.”
Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report. McDonnell reported from Mexico Metropolis and Padilla from Los Angeles.
