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President Donald Trump announced on Thursday he’s extending the existing tariffs with Mexico, America’s largest trading partner, and he will pause higher tariffs that were set to go into effect Friday.
That means the status quo will continue, in which goods from Mexico are taxed at 25%, unless they are compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal Trump signed under his first term. In those instances, goods won’t face any tariffs, barring certain sectoral tariffs in place.
“I have just concluded a telephone conversation with the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, which was very successful in that, more and more, we are getting to know and understand each other,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “The complexities of a Deal with Mexico are somewhat different than other Nations because of both the problems, and assets, of the Border. We have agreed to extend, for a 90 Day period, the exact same Deal as we had for the last short period of time.”
“We will be talking to Mexico over the next 90 Days with the goal of signing a Trade Deal somewhere within the 90 Day period of time, or longer,” Trump wrote.
America has come to rely on Mexico for a wide range of goods, including cars, electronics, footwear and apparel. The country overtook China to become America’s top source of imports in 2023 and has remained in that position since then.
The shift has occurred amidst a slew of higher tariffs Trump imposed on China during his first term, which former President Joe Biden largely kept in place.
Mexico also imports a ton of goods from the United States: It is No. 2 export market for the United States behind Canada.
Thus far, Mexico has not retaliated against any of the tariffs Trump has imposed. However, Sheinbaum has repeatedly vowed to slap higher tariffs on American goods were Trump to impose higher tariffs on Mexican goods.
Goods from Canada, America’s second-largest trading partner, have been tariffed at nearly identical rates as Mexico since April. However, it’s not clear if Trump has plans to speak to Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of a 12:01 a.m. ET deadline, after which goods from Canada could face 35% tariffs.
Dozens of other countries face that same threat, with tariff rates varying by country. Trump may not necessarily wait until 12:01 a.m. ET, however. In the case of Brazil, he enacted an additional 40% tariff on goods from there on Wednesday, albeit with some key exclusions.
It’s unclear whether there will be exclusions on certain goods for the other countries Trump has sent letters to heads of state threatening to raise tariffs.
Countries that haven’t received letters aren’t off the hook for higher tariffs either, given Trump’s vowed to increase the universal tariff rate most countries have faced from 10% to between 15% to 20%.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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