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Trump Backs Off Mexico, Canada Tariffs After Market Blowback

Published

8 months ago

March 7, 2025

United States 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 could weigh on US growth and raise inflation.

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.

The halt — which will last until April 2 — offers relief to automakers.

In the auto sector, parts cross North American borders multiple times during production.

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).

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.

About half of Mexican imports come through the USMCA.

The latest moves make conditions “much more favorable for our American car manufacturers,” Trump said Thursday.

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.”

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.

At that point, Canadian and Mexican goods could still face levies.

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

US stock markets slumped again Thursday despite the new measures.

– ‘Tremendous progress’ –

Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office that he had a “very good conversation” with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

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.

His remarks stood in sharp contrast to simmering tensions with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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.”

“Our goal remains to get these tariffs, all tariffs removed,” Trudeau added.

Canada contributes less than one percent of fentanyl to the illicit US supply, according to Canadian and US government data.

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.

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

“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.”

– ‘Economic reality’ –

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.

“The market doesn’t like them and certainly doesn’t like the uncertainty surrounding them,” Lincicome told AFP.

Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has made tariff threats on allies and adversaries alike.

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.

Trump has referred to tariffs as a source of US government revenue and a way to remedy trade imbalances.

The US trade deficit surged to a new record in January, ballooning 34 percent to $131.4 billion as imports rose.

Analysts say the deficit was likely bolstered by gold imports, but that data suggests businesses were also trying to get ahead of tariffs.

AFP

Related Topics:#Trump Canada Mexico Tariff

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Headline

Sweden To Charge 18-year-old Over IS Terror Plot

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said Tuesday it intended to charge an 18-year-old man for planning a terrorist act in Stockholm on behalf of the Islamic State group.

According to prosecutors, the planning took place between August 2024 and February 2025.

“We believe the purpose of the preparations was to induce serious fear in the population, in the name of the Islamic State. The criminal act could have seriously harmed Sweden,” Deputy Chief Prosecutor Henrik Olin said in a statement.

Prosecutors did not provide details of the plan but said the man was also suspected of “preparation for serious crimes under the act on flammable and explosive goods and training for terrorism”.

Prosecutors said they planned to file the charges on Thursday and that a press conference would be held the same day.

The young man will also be charged alongside a 17-year-old boy with attempted murder in Germany in August 2024.

Both of them are also suspected of “participation in a terrorist organisation,” according to the statement.

The man was arrested in Stockholm on February 11 and has been in custody since then.

AFP

Headline

US Shutdown Hits 35 Days, Tying Longest In History

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

The US government shutdown entered its 35th day on Tuesday, matching a record set during President Donald Trump’s first term, as lawmakers voiced hope over progress behind the scenes to end the dispute.

The federal closure appears almost certain to become the longest in history, with no breakthroughs expected before it goes into its sixth week at midnight — although there were fragile signs in Congress that an off-ramp is closer than ever.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune set the buoyant mood music on Monday when he told reporters he felt “optimistic” that newly energised talks between warring Republicans and Democrats could end in a deal before next week.

The government has been grinding to a halt since Congress failed to pass a bill to keep federal departments and agencies funded past the end of the last financial year on September 30.

“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected that it would drag on this long. We didn’t believe, we couldn’t have imagined,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news conference arranged to mark the six-week milestone.

“It’s now tied for the longest shutdown in US history. And we didn’t think we’d have to come in here every single day — day after day after day — and repeat the obvious facts to the American people and to put on display every day what is happening here.”

Some 1.4 million federal workers — from air traffic controllers to park wardens — have been placed on enforced leave without pay or made to work for nothing, while vital welfare programs and even paychecks for active-duty troops are under threat.

Both sides remain dug in over the main sticking point — health care spending.

Democrats say they will only provide votes to end the funding lapse after a deal has been struck to extend expiring insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for millions of Americans.

But Republicans insist they will only address health care once Democrats have voted to switch the lights back on in Washington.

While both sides’ leadership have shown little appetite for compromise, there have been signs of life on the back benches, with a handful of moderate Democrats working to find an escape hatch.

A separate bipartisan group of four centrist House members unveiled a compromise framework Monday for lowering health insurance costs.

Democrats believe that millions of Americans seeing skyrocketing premiums as they enroll onto health insurance programs for next year will pressure Republicans into seeking compromise.

But Trump has held firm on refusing to negotiate, telling CBS News in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would “not be extorted.”

The president has sought to apply his own pressure to force Democrats to cave, by threatening mass layoffs of federal workers and using the shutdown to target progressive priorities.

Last week his administration threatened to cut off a vital aid programme that helps 42 million Americans pay for groceries for the first time in its more than 60-year history, before the move was blocked in court.

And the president has returned to a familiar playbook of demanding the elimination of the Senate filibuster — the 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation — so Republicans can pass government funding themselves.

“Terminate the filibuster now, end the ridiculous shutdown immediately, and then, most importantly, pass every wonderful Republican policy that we have dreamt of for years, but never gotten,” Trump fulminated in an all-caps social media post.

Preserving the filibuster — which senators say protects the voice of the minority — is one of the few issues on which Republicans are willing to defy Trump and radical reform seems highly unlikely.

“The votes aren’t there,” Thune told reporters on Monday.

AFP

Headline

China Backs Nigeria, Warns Against Foreign Interference

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2025

Editor

China has urged the international community to respect Nigeria’s sovereignty following a US threat of military action.

The Chinese government reiterated its support for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, commending the government for guiding the country along a development path tailored to its national conditions.

According to a report sourced from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People’s Republic of China’s website, the Spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, stated this at a press briefing on Tuesday in Beijing.

She said, “As Nigeria’s strategic partner, China opposes any attempt by foreign powers to use religion or human rights as a pretext to meddle in another country’s internal affairs or impose sanctions and military threats.”

Recently, the US threatened Nigeria with possible military action due to the alleged persecution of Christians in the country.

The United States President, Donald Trump, had threatened to deploy military forces in Nigeria if the alleged genocide against Christians is not stopped in the country.