Trump delays tariffs for goods under Mexico, Canada trade deal
President Donald Trump suspended on Thursday the 25% tariffs he imposed this week on most goods from Canada and Mexico, the latest twist in a fluctuating trade policy that has whipsawed financial markets and fanned worries over inflation and a growth slowdown.
The exemptions, covering the two largest U.S. trading partners, expire on April 2 when Trump has threatened to impose a global regime of reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners.
Trump had imposed a 25% levy on imports from both on Tuesday and had mentioned an exemption only for Mexico earlier on Thursday, but the amendment he signed on Thursday afternoon covered Canada as well. The three countries are partners in a North American trade pact.
For Canada, the amended order also excludes duties on potash, a critical fertilizer for U.S. farmers, but does not fully cover energy products, on which Trump has imposed a separate 10% levy. A White House official said that is because not all energy products imported from Canada are covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade that Trump negotiated in his first term as president.
Trump imposed the tariffs after declaring a national emergency on January 20, his first day in office, due to deaths from fentanyl overdoses, asserting that the deadly opioid and its precursor chemicals make their way from China to the U.S. via Canada and Mexico. Trump has also imposed tariffs of 20% on all imports from China as a result.
Trump first announced the levies at the beginning of February, but he delayed them for Canada and Mexico until Tuesday. Earlier this week he declined to delay them again, and doubled a 10% levy that had been in force since February 4 on Chinese imports.
Source: Reuters
