Trump Sees Tariff Truce With Mexico as Positive
"We get a lot of tariffs. They’re paying a lot of money.”
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President Donald Trump said that a tariff truce extension with Mexico announced by that nation’s leader on Oct. 28 is a positive step because the country already pays significant tariffs benefiting the U.S.
“I like the extension with Mexico,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Oct. 29 en route to a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in South Korea after a visit to Japan. “We’re doing very well with that extension. We get a lot of tariffs. They’re paying a lot of money.”
Trump sidestepped the question of how long he felt extending the deadline was appropriate, instead saying that the existing tariff rates were sufficient to help convince car companies to move manufacturing back to the U.S.
Trump spoke after President Claudia Sheinbaum said Oct. 28 that the U.S. is extending a deadline to reach a trade deal with Mexico for several weeks. It’s the latest reprieve from punishing duties on exports that Trump has granted to America’s southern neighbor and largest trade partner.
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Trump at the end of July had set a Nov. 1 deadline to increase the fentanyl-related tariffs he imposed on certain Mexican goods to 30% from 25%, absent an agreement. The levies apply to Mexican products, including autos, that don’t meet the content rules of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Sheinbaum said the pause would enable the two sides to finish work on a more comprehensive agreement. Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who has been spearheading talks with U.S. officials, is leading the nation’s delegation to the same meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that Trump is attending in Gyeongju, South Korea, this week.
The extension stands in marked contrast to Trump’s relationship with the U.S.’s other neighbor, Canada. In recent days Trump has threatened to ratchet up tariffs on goods from Canada by an additional 10% over a commercial, produced by the government of Ontario, airing during the World Series and criticizing his trade policies.
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Trump said tariffs are spurring car companies to return manufacturing to the U.S. after moving plants abroad in recent decades to nations including Mexico. That shift since the 1990s was one of his main reasons Trump demanded the North American Free Trade Agreement with the two U.S. neighbors be renegotiated during his first term.
Trump on Oct. 29 touted investments in the U.S. by companies including Toyota Motor Corp., whose Chairman Akio Toyoda attended a dinner with the president in Tokyo on Oct. 28. Trump said the company will build a new U.S. plant worth up to $10 billion, though another official from the company said it hasn’t announced such a plan nor discussed a specific investment figure with the White House.
