President Trump and Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Monday that they had agreed a one-month pause on the imposition of a 25% across-the-board tariff by the US in exchange for concessions on border security by Mexico while a broader deal gets negotiated.
As part of the temporary pause, Sheinbaum agreed to reinforce the US-Mexico border with 10,000 personnel from her country’s National Guard, to help crack down on fentanyl dissemination and illegal immigration into the US, per statements from the two leaders.
The US also agreed to ramp up efforts to prevent the trafficking of weapons into Mexico, according to Sheinbaum, who had a call with Trump earlier in the day Monday.
“I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation,” Trump said of the call in a Truth Social post. “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.”
“I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries.”
On Saturday, Trump ordered a 25% levy on Mexican imports after accusing the southern neighbor of failing to meet his demands of addressing the fentanyl and illegal immigration crises. The 47th president had first issued the threat against Mexico last November, shortly after his 2024 victory.
The tariff was set to come in addition to existing tariffs the US has in effect against Mexico, which had been preparing retaliatory measures.
Mexico is the largest US trading partner, with about 80% of its exports flowing north. Just 16% of US exports go to Mexico, with about $775 billion worth of goods traded between the two countries last year, per data from the US Census Bureau.
“We had a good conversation with President Trump with great respect for our relationship and sovereignty; we reached a series of agreements,” Sheinbaum said in a statement on X, per a translation.
“Our teams will begin working today on two fronts: security and trade,” she added. “They are pausing tariffs for one month from now.”
Trump had also ordered a 25% tariff on Canada over the fentanyl and illegal immigration crises and a 10% across-the-board tariff on China.
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a suite of retaliatory 25% tariffs on more than $106 billion in US goods.
Trump and Trudeau held a call earlier in the day Monday, and agreed to a second call later in the afternoon to further hash out an arrangement.
Mexico, Canada and China are America’s three largest trading partners, accounting for about $1.4 trillion worth of US imports annually. For context, US gross domestic product clocked in at $27.36 trillion in 2023, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.
If all three tariffs went into effect, it could’ve reduced GDP by about 0.4 percentage points, cost about 344,000 jobs and amounted to tax increases of about $1.2 trillion between 2025 and 2034, according to an estimate from the Tax Foundation.
In the short term, the Tax Foundation projected that the average US household would see a tax hike of about $830.
“This will be the golden age of America! Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid,” Trump acknowledged on Truth Social Sunday in an all-capitalization post.
Trump has long been fond of tariffs, calling it his fourth-favorite word in the English language, after “love,” “the Bible,” and “religion.”
Over the weekend, the president mused about slapping tariffs against European countries over their trade practices and other concerns.
“The UK, but [the] European Union is really out of line,” Trump told reporters on Sunday night. “UK is out of line but I’m sure that one, I think that one can be worked out. But the European Union, it’s an atrocity what they’ve done.”
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