{"id":18956,"date":"2025-03-07T11:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T06:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=18956"},"modified":"2025-03-07T11:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T06:07:11","slug":"trump-backs-off-mexico-canada-tariffs-after-market-blowback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/trump-backs-off-mexico-canada-tariffs-after-market-blowback\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump backs off Mexico, Canada tariffs after market blowback"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday delayed some tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, leading Ottawa to halt an upcoming wave of countermeasures — offering a reprieve to companies and consumers after blowback on financial markets.<\/p>\n

Stock markets tumbled after Trump’s duties of up to 25 percent took effect Tuesday, as economists warned that blanket levies could weigh on US growth and raise inflation.<\/p>\n

Trump signed orders Thursday to hit pause on the fresh tariffs for Canadian and Mexican imports covered by a North American trade agreement, though he dismissed suggestions that his decisions were linked to market turmoil.<\/p>\n

The halt — which will last until April 2 — offers relief to automakers.<\/p>\n

In the auto sector, parts cross North American borders multiple times during production.<\/p>\n

Following talks with the “Big Three” US automakers — Stellantis, Ford and General Motors — Washington initially announced a one-month exemption on autos coming through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).<\/p>\n

A White House official told reporters that about 62 percent of Canadian imports will still face the new tariffs, although much of these are energy products hit by a lower rate of 10 percent.<\/p>\n

About half of Mexican imports come through the USMCA.<\/p>\n

The latest moves make conditions “much more favorable for our American car manufacturers,” Trump said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Trump’s decision, Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc wrote on X that his country “will not proceed with the second wave of tariffs on $125B of US products until April 2nd, while we continue to work for the removal of all tariffs.”<\/p>\n

Trump said more tariffs would come on April 2, adding they will be “reciprocal in nature.” He had earlier vowed reciprocal levies to remedy practices Washington deems unfair.<\/p>\n

At that point, Canadian and Mexican goods could still face levies.<\/p>\n

The US president also said he would not modify broad tariffs for steel and aluminum imports, which are due to take effect next week.<\/p>\n

US stock markets slumped again Thursday despite the new measures.<\/p>\n

– ‘Tremendous progress’ –<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office that he had a “very good conversation” with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.<\/p>\n

He claimed “tremendous progress” on both illegal immigration and drugs coming into the United States — both reasons that Washington cited in imposing levies on Mexico, Canada and China.<\/p>\n

His remarks stood in sharp contrast to simmering tensions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n

Trudeau said Thursday that Ottawa will remain in a trade war with Washington for “the foreseeable future” even if there are “breaks for certain sectors.”<\/p>\n

“Our goal remains to get these tariffs, all tariffs removed,” Trudeau added.<\/p>\n

Canada contributes less than one percent of fentanyl to the illicit US supply, according to Canadian and US government data.<\/p>\n

China, meanwhile, has pushed back on US allegations of its role in the fentanyl supply chain, and instead touted its cooperation with Washington on the issue.<\/p>\n

“The United States should not repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing.<\/p>\n

“China-US economic and trade ties are mutual. If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results. If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter.”<\/p>\n

– ‘Economic reality’ –<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, Trump’s easing of tariffs was “a recognition of economic reality” — that tariffs disrupt supply chains and the burden falls mainly on Americans.<\/p>\n

“The market doesn’t like them and certainly doesn’t like the uncertainty surrounding them,” Lincicome told AFP.<\/p>\n

Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has made tariff threats on allies and adversaries alike.<\/p>\n

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that he was not concerned Trump’s tariffs would be inflationary, adding that any impact on prices would likely be temporary.<\/p>\n

Trump has referred to tariffs as a source of US government revenue and a way to remedy trade imbalances.<\/p>\n

The US trade deficit surged to a new record in January, ballooning 34 percent to $131.4 billion as imports rose.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the deficit was likely bolstered by gold imports, but that data suggests businesses were also trying to get ahead of tariffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump on Thursday delayed some tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, leading Ottawa to halt an upcoming wave of countermeasures — offering a reprieve to companies and consumers after blowback on financial markets. Stock markets tumbled after Trump’s duties of up to 25 percent took effect Tuesday, as economists warned that blanket levies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18958,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18956\/revisions\/18958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}