The United States’ proposed 25% tariff on Mexican exports will be postponed for one month “as of now” thanks to a deal between the Mexican and U.S. governments, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday.
Sheinbaum said on social media that she had a “good conversation” with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday morning and that “we reached a series of agreements” including one to postpone the 25% tariff, which was due to take effect on Tuesday.
Sostuvimos una buena conversación con el presidente Trump con mucho respeto a nuestra relación y la soberanía; llegamos a una serie de acuerdos:
1.México reforzará la frontera norte con 10 mil elementos de la Guardia Nacional de forma inmediata, para evitar el tráfico de drogas…
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) February 3, 2025
She said that Mexico would “immediately” deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to the northern border “to avoid the trafficking of drugs from Mexico to the United States, in particular fentanyl.”
Sheinbaum also said that the United States had committed to “work to avoid the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico” as part of the tariff deal.
“Our teams will begin to work today on two issues: security and trade. The tariffs are placed on pause for one month as of now,” she wrote.
For his part, Trump said on Truth Social that he had “a very friendly conversation” with Sheinbaum and that she “agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States.”
“These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country,” he wrote.
“We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico. I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries,” Trump said.
The agreement the Mexican and U.S. agreements reached on Monday is reminiscent of one negotiated during the first Trump administration when Andrés Manuel López Obrador was president of Mexico. In 2019, Trump threatened to impose a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico to pressure the country to do more to stop immigration into the United States.
However, Mexico and the U.S. reached a deal in June 2019 that averted the proposed tariff. As a result of the agreement, Mexico beefed up security at both its southern and northern borders.
Trump said on Sunday night that he would speak to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and “Mexico” on Monday morning, but added that he didn’t expect “anything dramatic” to come of the talks.
“We put tariffs on. They owe us a lot of money and I’m sure they’re going to pay,” said the United States president, who has railed against the trade deficits the U.S. has with its USMCA trade partners.
The U.S. and Canada reached a deal on Monday afternoon that paused Trump’s planned 25% tariff on Canadian exports for 30 days.
White House accuses Mexican government of providing ‘safe havens’ for cartels
In a “fact sheet” issued on Saturday, the White House said that Trump was responding to the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs” by implementing tariffs on exports from Mexico, Canada and China.
The threat, the White House said, “constitutes a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2025
“Until the crisis is alleviated, President Donald J. Trump is implementing a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% additional tariff on imports from China. Energy resources from Canada will have a lower 10% tariff,” the fact sheet said.
“President Trump is taking bold action to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”
The White House also said that “the Mexican drug trafficking organizations have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico.”
“The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics, which collectively have led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims,” the White House said.
“This alliance endangers the national security of the United States, and we must eradicate the influence of these dangerous cartels,” the fact sheet said.
Given that Trump has laid the groundwork to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, the assertion that the Mexican government “has afforded safe havens” for cartels is virtually akin to accusing Mexico of harboring terrorists.
Unsurprisingly, Sheinbaum rejected the White House’s claim.
Como decía Juárez: Nada por la fuerza; todo por la razón y el derecho. Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz. Mensaje al pueblo de México: pic.twitter.com/yYUKmZsonY
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) February 2, 2025
“We categorically reject the libel the White House makes against the government of Mexico,” she said in a social media post on Saturday.
Sheinbaum also said that the Mexican government is opposed to “any attempt at interference in our territory” — i.e. U.S. military action against Mexican cartels on Mexican soil.
In a lengthy social media statement, the president effectively accused U.S. gun stores of having an alliance with Mexican criminal groups because “they sell high-powered weapons” to them “as the United States Department of Justice showed in January of this year.”
Sheinbaum also highlighted the Mexican government’s efforts to combat drug trafficking.
“In four months our government has seized more than 40 tonnes of drugs, including 20 million doses of fentanyl,” she said.
“More than 10,000 people linked to these [criminal] groups have been detained,” Sheinbaum added.
She stressed that “Mexico doesn’t want confrontation” with the United States, and asserted that problems aren’t solved “with the imposition of tariffs” but rather through dialogue.
Sheinbaum said on Saturday that her administration would respond to the United States’ tariffs on Mexican exports with its “plan B,” which she explained “includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of the interests of Mexico.”
For now, those retaliatory measures will not be necessary given that Mexico and the United States — each other’s largest trade partners — have agreed to keep their hundreds of billions of dollars of annual trade tariff-free, at least for the next month.
Mexico News Daily
I am glad to hear this. But, knowing that Trump is lacking in compassion, an-historic, a narcisist and completly transactional; he is doing this so that folks up there do not sit around discussing the increased cost of goods like avocados during the superbowl. Our President is doing a wonderful job of working with this situation. We are lucky to have such a skilled person as leader in these trying times.
And the show goes on. 🍿🍿🍺🍺
Guacamole and Mexican beer for the SuperBowl the only reason, so the Americans won’t be wondering how come no avocados, where’s the beer?
After the SuperBowl back to playing hard ball.
US far right TV and newspapers fail to mention a part of the agreement is that the US has agreed to stop the illegal gun trade. Huge amounts of money is paid for US guns which are smuggled into Mexico.
Hi Peggy, I was thinking the same thing but here in Springfield Missouri they did mention on the news that Trump acknowledged the gun issue. Not sure if he really cares or takes it seriously though.
So President Sheinbaum brought the orange to its knees!
Unfortunately we voted a worthless jew that only knows to cave in, and this was the best opprtunity for mexico to step up like Canadá and resist ….. we have the upper hand in the market right now
Watch your mouth, bucko. Obviousy she is a lot smarter than you are! Shame on you.
Trump essentially got what he wanted from Mexico. 10,000 military at the border with the US while avoiding higher prices for Americans. Without laws changing regarding the sale of guns, which is almost impossible in the US, especially with Republican control of both Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. I question how exactly the US plans to “work to avoid the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico”? Many municipalities and States in the US have tried to pass restrictions on the sale of guns following massacres in their schools and other mass shooting events, with no success. The only deterrent I see is increased inspections at the border crossings. I am happy to see tariffs tabled until March. However, I believe one of the next stipulations will be a united front against the cartels. Trump goes against everything I believe in, but, and I hate to say he’s right, BUT, AMLO’S “hugs” policy HAS afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics to the US, as well as smuggle guns into Mexico. He let the cartels operate free and clear for 6 years. Unfortunately, President Sheinbaum now has to deal with that complacency. As smart as she is, she needs to publicly denounce AMLO’s narcos policy or admit that it didn’t work and that she now has to make a change in how Mexico deals with the narcos. She alone is President and as such needs to implement policy that allows Mexico to thrive. She’s either in bed with the US, or in bed with the narcos. Time to pick the lesser of the 2 evils. This is her opportunity to prove herself as a LEADER. The reality is that politics is dirty work. There’s not a leader anywhere in the world who isn’t morally and ethically corrupt to some extent. It’s the way shit gets done. I think the time has finally arrived for Mexico to make a decision on how it wants to be recognized. As a developing nation that wants to improve the lives of it’s people, or as a narco state that is afraid to tackle really big issues. There are plenty of other countries that have chosen the narco state, they have their sovereignty and have been free to do so. They just don’t get the opportunity to grow and mature like Mexico could by partnering with the US and increase the near shoring capabilities presently available. Go against the US now, and this will be the hot button voting issue with Americans for the next few decades. We saw it in the last election. A narcissistic felon who clearly stated his plans, and had project 2025 revealed to the public long before election day. People knew what was coming and what the economic and democratic reprocussions would be for the US, and STILL voted overwhelmingly for him based almost exclusively because of their hatred of brown people. It saddens me to say, but Amercans and Mexico needs to WAKE UP to the reality that America is no longer the country it once was. There should be manufacturers and business leaders from every sector screaming about what the tariffs will/would do to their bottom lines, but it’s eerily silent… Everyone is afraid of Trump destroying their business with one tweet. Don’t be mistaken that there is any “victory” in today’s announcement. There’s 4 years of this coming and I don’t see any of us winning. Except the corporations and the far right. Heaven help us. 🤙✌️&❤️
Quite well said thanks.
(I believe that “based almost exclusively because of their hatred of brown people” is GROSSLY exaggerated).
I’m not sure why anybody is pretending that troops on the border will halt the flow of fentanyl into the US. Who is playing who for the fool?
Sure this gives both politicians a little bit of “Boy I showed them” flexing – is this ALL that it’s about?
Seems like Trump is sniffing around the edges of more- “The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics”.. guess we’ll see if this dog hunts.
Ultimately the issue isn’t narcotics- if the demand for drugs vanished magically at midnight tonight the cartels would be in another line of business by 9am tomorrow. The cartels are the issue- not drugs.
Your comments are among the best so far! Let’s be realistic. Trump never intended to impose the 25% tariffs!
His blow hard nature brought the threat to the surface to watch people bend to him and cower!
He likes to look like the BMOC and it worked. .. but at what cost…the comedy shows goes on!
Don’t believe 10,000 Mexican soldiers are going to have any effect this just a disguise and distraction they will do nothing to stop Drugs Trump will recognize this Traifs back Shienbalm and Amlo are both Socialist leftist Communists totaly controlled by Mexican Cartels WAKE UP MEXICO DISTROY CARTELS
Mexico has a large, well equiped army and navy who, to my knowledge, do nothing to stop the cartels from ruining the reputation of the country. However, they do parade around Mexico City’s zocalo every September 16th and occasionally you see an army truck or two equipted with machine gun personnel showing off on the streets of Puebla instead of driving the poisonous cartels off of the streets of Sinaloa, and arresting the corrupt members of the governments of Sinaloa, Sonora, Chiapas, Guerrero, and the northern border states. Amlo was their friend. Let’s hope that Sheinbaum is their worst enemy!!