Trump agrees to 90-day negotiating period with Mexico, keeping tariffs at 25% for now
The US president had threatened to raise duties to 30 per cent, but paused the increase after a call with Mexican leader Claudia Sheinbaum
The United States will enter a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico over trade as 25 per cent tariff rates stay in place, part of the rush of trade activity on Thursday before US President Donald Trump plans to impose a broad set of global import taxes starting on Friday.
Trump posted on social media that his phone conversation with Mexican leader Claudia Sheinbaum was “very successful in that, more and more, we are getting to know and understand each other”.
The Republican president had threatened tariffs of 30 per cent on goods from Mexico in a July letter, something that Sheinbaum said Mexico gets to stave off for the next three months.
“We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow and we got 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue,” Sheinbaum wrote on social media.
The leaders’ morning call came at a moment of pressure and uncertainty for the world economy. Nations are scrambling to finalise the outlines of a trade framework with Trump in order to avoid him simply imposing higher tariff rates that could upend economies and governments.
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Trump reached a deal with South Korea on Wednesday, and earlier with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.