President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was granting a month-long reprieve on unilaterally ordering tax increases on some goods imported from Mexico after a telephone call with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum earlier in the day.
Trump said he was granting an exemption on any goods imported into the U.S. that are compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement that he negotiated during his first term.
“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. This Agreement is until April 2nd,” he said in a statement posted to his Truth Social platform.
He added that the temporary reprieve was “an accommodation” made “out of respect” for Sheinbaum, who he credited for “working hard” with him to combat illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“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,” he said.
Trump has not announced any similar exemption for Canadian goods that are compliant with the USMCA, but in a separate Truth Social post he claimed — without evidence — that outgoing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who earlier this year announced his intention to stand down as soon as his Liberal Party elects a new leader, was using the trade war the American president started without provocation as a way to remain in office.
The American president has spent months stoking a feud with his country’s northern neighbor and has claimed that there is an epidemic of fentanyl trafficking across the U.S.-Canada border, the largest unguarded land border in the world.
In reality, the vast majority of fentanyl entering the United States on land comes from Mexico through legal ports of entry smuggled by Americans. But this has not stopped Trump from using the alleged fentanyl trafficking as a pretext to unilaterally impose import taxes on goods from Canada and claiming that the tariffs — which are paid by Americans — could be avoided were Canadians to elect to have their country annexed by the United States.
Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, has called the unilateral tax increases imposed on Americans by his American counterpart “a very dumb thing to do” and has said the trade war started by Trump could continue for some time.
The prospect of a long trade war fought by the U.S. against two of its largest trading partners has depressed American stock markets to a point that all gains made since Trump was sworn in for a second term have been erased. Trump’s reliance on tariffs has drawn at least some criticism from a number of his Republican allies, particularly those in Congress who represent states that rely on cross-border trade.
Susan Collins, the longtime GOP senator from Maine, said on Thursday that it’s unclear whether Trump is aware of how the unilateral sales tax increases he is imposing will negatively impact her constituents.
“I don’t know that he fully appreciates how integrated the economies are in border states with Canada, people cross every single day,” she said.
Eric Garcia contributed reporting from the Capitol
