The move came hours after Trump said Mexican imports covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would be exempted, and one day after he said auto imports included in the USMCA would not be subject to tariffs. The exemption also applies to auto parts used in the assembly of cars.
“USMCA-compliant goods will not have a tariff for the next month, until April 2. That includes autos, and the autos were the lead in getting this done, but also Canada and Mexico have done a good job offering us ever more work to prove to us they’re going to cut the fentanyl deaths,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement.
“On April 2, we’re going to move into the reciprocal tariff, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we’ll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation,” Lutnick added.
White House officials have argued Trump’s tariffs should be seen not through the lens of a trade war, but through the lens of a war against fentanyl, which kills thousands of Americans each year.
Still, the White House’s unpredictable approach to tariffs has rattled financial markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq composite and the S&P 500 all taking on losses earlier in the week.
Trump has promised more tariffs coming down the pike and pledged to begin imposing reciprocal tariffs starting in early April on other nations that have duties on U.S. imports.
The Hill’s Brett Samuels has more here.
