On Thursday, Trump announced he would exempt most goods from Canada and Mexico covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) from his 25% tariffs for the next month.
In an effort to provide clarity over his latest tariff negotiations, President Donald Trump explained why he approved another one-month pause on the 25% levy on Canada and Mexico.
“I wanted to help Mexico and Canada to a certain extent. We’re a big, big country, and they do a lot of their business with us, whereas in our case, it’s much less significant. We do very little with Canada by comparison. And I wanted to help the American carmakers until April 2nd. April 2nd, it becomes all reciprocal,” Trump told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an exclusive interview.
“But this is short-term. And I felt that for the good of the American carmakers and the USMCA… I thought it would be a fair thing to do,” the president continued. “And so I gave them a little bit of a break for this short period of time.”
The tariffs went into effect earlier this week and are now set to be reinstated on April 2. After Trump enacted them, Canada also said it would place reciprocal, retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.
As part of his Day One initiatives, Trump said tariffs would be placed on America’s trade neighbors after declaring fentanyl deaths a national emergency.
He said the drug makes its way from China to the U.S. via Mexican and Canadian imports.
“This country has been ripped off from every, every nation in the world, every company outside in the world. We’ve been ripped off at levels never seen before. And all we’re going to do is get it back. We’re going to get a lot of it back. We’re not going to let people take advantage of us anymore,” the president said.
Bartiromo’s full interview with President Trump will air March 9 at 10 a.m. ET on Fox News.
I’m very pleased to know that America is going back to the “real” America finally. Thank you to President trump and all the people he has put together that are also very knowledge regarding our REAL America. At this time, ONLY President Trump can put America back together again. THANK YOU, SIR!
I look forward to working with you again as we did during you 2020-2024 term. That was when you were at the Federal Level and I was working at and with the American Peoples’ Level. Combining our level was a successful endeavor.
Let’s do it again and move all of us forward from the bottom to the top!