President Donald Trump has temporarily delayed tariffs on certain products from Mexico and Canada before imposing the “big one” starting April 2. He explained that this decision followed “fruitful conversations” with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, while he criticized Canada as a “high tariff nation.”
An official stated that the tariff changes aim to “protect American car manufacturers and American farmers.” The new approach will exclude goods covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) from the current tariffs. The USMCA, negotiated by Trump during his first term, established a free trade zone between the three North American nations.
Trump elaborated on the changes, saying, “During this interim period, between now and April 2nd, this makes it much more favorable for our American car manufacturers.” He also spoke about his discussions with President Sheinbaum, sharing, “I spoke to the president of Mexico, a wonderful woman, today, and we helped them out with a problem they were having to do with the short-term tariffs. We had a very good conversation. Also, we discussed drugs, and they’ve been working much harder lately. We’ve made tremendous progress on both.”
Trump later shared the details of their conversation in a post on Truth Social. He wrote, “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!”
Regarding Canada, Trump reiterated that tariffs would take effect next week, with the major action scheduled for April 2nd. He remarked, “Canada is a high-tariff nation. Canada charges us 250 per cent for our milk products and other products and a tremendous tariff on lumber and things as such. We don’t need their lumber. We have more lumber than they do. We don’t need Canada’s lumber.” He also revealed plans to take action on domestic lumber production, saying, “What I’m doing is I’ll be signing an executive order freeing up our forests so that we’re allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money and then re-harvest trees…We don’t need trees from Canada. We don’t need cars from Canada. We don’t need energy from Canada. We don’t need anything from Canada…We can be self-sustaining, which is in most things.”
Trump also took aim at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier in the day, accusing him of “using the tariff problem” to secure another term as Prime Minister despite what Trump described as his “terrible job” for Canada.