Mexico appears to have avoided Trump’s tariffs – for now. The Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, agreed to send troops to the border to help slow drug trafficking, leading President Trump to announce a one-month pause on the 25-percent tariffs he promised just days earlier.
Trump wrote on social media, “We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico.”
He also noted that he looks forward to the negotiations “as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two countries.” Sheinbaum said she and Trump had reached “a series of agreements,” including that the United States would work to prevent high-powered firearms from entering Mexico.
The development staves off some of the immediate effects that the tariffs would have created, but only temporarily for now. Many automakers build vehicles in Mexico and Canada, and countless suppliers operate in all three countries, making this move to tax the flow of goods one that will be studied for years to come.
No such progress has been announced with Canada. Its president Justin Trudeau laid out countermeasures against the tariffs in an emotional news conference over the weekend, which will see U.S. booze pulled from many Canadian shelves and could cripple the auto industry on both sides of the border.
[Images: BMW, Honda, Volkswagen]
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