On Saturday (1st), President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada entering the United States and a 10% tariff on Chinese products. According to the U.S. government, this measure is a way to pressure these countries to curb the influx of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.
The three countries, the largest trading partners, immediately responded by threatening to impose similar tariffs. The beginning of a trade war was established over the weekend.
However, on Monday (3rd), as financial markets plummeted due to fears of more inflation and a global economic crisis because of the tariffs, the governments of the United States and Mexico decided to talk and negotiate.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reached an agreement with the Trump administration to delay the strict 25% tariff that was scheduled to take effect on Tuesday (4th) for one month, while the two countries reach a series of agreements on border security. Sheinbaum agreed to mobilize an additional 10,000 troops designated to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border.
In exchange, Mexico will receive at least a temporary postponement of the overall 25% tariffs that Trump announced on Saturday, as well as assistance from the U.S. government to stem the flow of arms across the border, Sheinbaum said.
Trump also stated that he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country has already announced retaliatory tariffs of 25% on U.S. products, and that they would talk again. China, for its part, promised to file a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization and take “corresponding countermeasures to firmly safeguard its rights and interests.”
Trump indicated on Sunday that Europe may be his next target, telling the BBC that tariffs “will definitely happen against the European Union” and could come “very soon.” European leaders responded on Monday that a trade war with the United States would destabilize economies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Source: The New York Times