US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Mexico would not be obliged to pay rates for goods that fell under the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement on the trade until 2 April, but did not report a delay for Canada, despite the fact that his trading secretary said that a similar exemption was likely.
“After I spoke to President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I agree that Mexico will not be obliged to pay rates about everything that falls under the USMCA agreement,” Trump wrote about Truth Social. “This agreement is until 2 April.”
Mexican President Sheinbaum thanked her American counterpart for an “excellent and respectful” call on Thursday, and promised that her government would work on safety and migration while Washington temporarily illuminates the rates.
“The majority of what Mexico imports into the US meets the trade agreement,” she said at a press conference after the announcement.
Sheinbaum said that both countries would continue to work together to stop the arrival of Opioid Fentanyl from Mexico to the United States.
“We had an excellent and respectful call in which we agreed that our work and cooperation yielded unprecedented results, within the framework of respect for our sovereignty,” said Sheinbaum in a post about X.
Sheinbaum added that the two countries would also work to curb the arrival of weapons from the US in Mexico.
Earlier today, the American trade secretary Howard Lutnick said that the postponement of one month at hefty rates on goods from Mexico and Canada that was granted to automotive products would probably be extended to all products that comply with the American Mexico-Canada agreement on trade.
Lutnick told CNBC that he expected that Trump would announce that extension today, one day after exemising automotive goods of the 25 percent rates he hit on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.
Trump “will decide this today,” Lutnick said, adding: “It is likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services.
“So if you think about it in this way, if you lived under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement of Donald Trump, you will now get a delay of these rates. If you choose to go beyond, you did it at your own risk, and today is when that settlement comes, “he said.
Nevertheless, Trump’s Social Media Post did not report a delay for Canada, the other party at the USMCA deal where Trump was negotiated as president during his first term.
Lutnick said that his estimate of the cuff “was that more than 50 pcs of the goods imported from the two American neighbors – also the two largest trading partners – were in accordance with the USMCA deal where Trump was negotiated as president during his first term.
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick’s comments ‘promising’ in comments to reporters in Canada.
“That corresponds to some of the conversations we have had with administrative officials, but I am going to wait for an official agreement to talk about the Canadian reaction and look at the details of it,” said Trudeau.
“But it’s a promising sign. But I will emphasize that this means that the rates remain in place and therefore our reaction will remain in place. “
Lutnick emphasized that the postponement would only last until 2 April, when he said that the administration is planning to continue with mutual rates, including the US, that corresponds to those imposed by trading partners.
In the meantime, he said, the current interruption about obtaining fentanyl deaths, which was the first justification that Trump used for the rates at Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20 pcs.
“On 2 April we will move with the mutual rates, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done well enough work on Fentanyl that this part of the table conversation will be, and we will only go to the mutual tariff discussion,” Lutnick said. “But if they don’t, this will stay on.”
Trudeau indeed expects the US and Canada to stay in a trade war.
“I can confirm that we will stay in a trade war that was launched by the United States in the near future,” he told reporters in Ottawa.
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