Trump backs off tariff threat with Mexico, digs in on Canada
The U.S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico are still slated to go into effect on Tuesday, while negotiations with their governments continue.
By
VICTORIA GUIDA and
MEGAN MESSERLY
02/03/2025 10:47 AM EST
By
VICTORIA GUIDA and
MEGAN MESSERLY
02/03/2025 10:47 AM EST
Updated: 02/03/2025 12:34 PM EST
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that her country had reached a series of agreements with President Donald Trump and that tariffs will be put on hold for one month, starting now.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, confirmed the one-month delay, which he said he granted the country after it agreed to send 10,000 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border. A White House official confirmed the one-month extension only applies to Mexico, not Canada or China, which Trump also slapped with tariffs over the weekend.
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and his choice for secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, would meet with high-level representatives during the one-month pause for further negotiations.
“I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries,” Trump wrote.
Sheinbaum,
in a post on X, said the troops at its northern border would target drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, particularly fentanyl.
One person close to the administration, granted anonymity to discuss the rapidly evolving situation, said the tariff delay is what they had expected Trump to do all along, and that they had been surprised when the president announced on Friday that he was moving forward with the levies.
“All in all, predictable in Trump’s world,” said a former Mexican trade official, granted anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive talks. “Keep the sword of Damocles hanging.”
On Saturday, Trump signed executive orders imposing 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on the U.S.'s North American neighbors, though tariffs on Canadian energy would be set at 10 percent. He also announced a 10 percent increase in tariffs on China. Those tariffs were slated to go into effect Tuesday — and in Canada and China’s case, are still on tap to.
Financial markets dropped Monday morning in response to the Saturday executive orders.
Prior to announcing the Mexican tariff pause a White House official told POLITICO that Trump was still pushing for action on border security from Canada and Mexico and halting the flow of fentanyl from China, where much of it originates. The official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said their responses could result in a decrease or the removal of the sweeping tariffs set to go into effect on Tuesday.
The official said the duties were about border security rather than the trading relationships, and that clauses in the executive orders that allow for the tariffs to be increased in response to retaliation were worded in a way to give maximum flexibility to the administration to negotiate.
But Trump has complained repeatedly in recent days of the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, signaling negotiations to lift the tariffs on Canadian goods could be more fraught.
“Canada doesn’t even allow U.S. Banks to open or do business there. What’s that all about? Many such things, but it’s also a DRUG WAR, and hundreds of thousands of people have died in the U.S. from drugs pouring through the Borders of Mexico and Canada,” the
president posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, Monday morning.
“Canada is more complicated because he wants concessions on other issues — separate from border and fentanyl. He has made that clear,” said a person familiar with the discussions.
“And the Canadians are threatening to hit back with big tariffs without making any concessions on the issues that Trump appears most focused on with Canada. So ironically, the tariffs toward Canada could be longer lasting if the Canadians don’t start to play ball on Trump’s seeming priorities.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already unveiled
a list of more than $100 billion worth of American goods that will be subject to retaliatory tariffs starting Tuesday. At the same time Canadian officials say they’re making good faith efforts to address border security concerns — and are bewildered at what more Trump wants them to do.
“We’re their number one export destination. We’re their largest customers,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters Monday at a press conference in Etobicoke, Ont. “We aren’t taking parts from China and putting made in Mexico stickers on, and shipping them through the United States. And there’s precursors that are coming in from China going into Mexico. The fentanyl then gets run up through America into Canada. So we’re no Mexico, I’ll tell you that.”
Trump and Trudeau spoke Monday morning and are scheduled to speak again at 3 pm.
The person close to the administration added that they believe the moves over the weekend will accelerate the timeline for reviewing the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, known as the USMCA — which is due for a mandated review next year.
“Even with a deal or deals now, he will get another whack with USMCA negotiations, and the negotiators will now know that Trump isn’t afraid to tariff,” said the second person familiar with the discussions.
Sheinbaum seemed to acknowledge in her remarks on Monday that the upcoming review is inseparable from the current negotiations. “I am confident that these high-level working meetings between the U.S. and Mexican governments on security, migration, and trade will be important,” she said. “Trade discussions are particularly significant because, as you know, the trade agreement is up for review in 2026. But, if we start these dialogues now, it will help us a lot.”
Jakob Weizman, Ari Hawkins, Doug Palmer and Mickey Djuric contributed to this report.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/03/mexico-president-tariffs-00202059
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