Trump says he’s happy with tariff truce extension with Mexico
[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump said that a tariff truce extension with Mexico announced by that nation’s leader on Tuesday (Oct 28) is a positive step because the country already pays significant tariffs benefiting the US.
“I like the extension with Mexico,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday en route to a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in South Korea after a visit to Japan. “We are doing very well with that extension. We get a lot of tariffs. They are 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 US.
Trump spoke after President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that the US 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 neighbour and largest trade partner.
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 per cent, absent an agreement. The levies apply to Mexican products, including autos, that do not meet the content rules of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Sheinbaum said that 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 US 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 US’s other neighbour, Canada. In recent days, Trump has threatened to ratchet up tariffs on goods from Canada by an additional 10 per cent over a commercial, produced by the government of Ontario, airing during the World Series and criticising his trade policies.
Trump said that tariffs are spurring car companies to return manufacturing to the US 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 US neighbours be renegotiated during his first term.
Trump on Wednesday touted investments in the US by companies including Toyota Motor, whose chairman Akio Toyoda attended a dinner with the president in Tokyo on Tuesday night. Trump said that the company will build a new US plant worth up to US$10 billion, though another official from the company said that it has not announced such a plan nor discussed a specific investment figure with the White House. BLOOMBERG
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