Eleven days after President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a pause in tariffs on Mexico, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set a deadline for reaching a trade agreement with the Trump administration.
Bessent stated that the US plans to conclude negotiations with countries that have not yet secured a trade agreement by the end of October, according to Nikkei Asia, citing an interview with the Treasury Secretary.
These new statements from the US government official come days after Donald Trump’s tariffs went into effect on August 7.
So far, Mexico, the United States’ main trading partner, Canada, the other USMCA member country, which is on a 90-day pause before its review, and Switzerland are holding negotiations with Trump with the goal of securing more favorable terms.
During the interview, Nikkei Asia reports, Bessent also spoke about Jerome Powell and his role at the helm of the Federal Reserve (Fed).
Bessent indicated that it is important to maintain the Federal Reserve’s independence, but said the next head of the central bank should be someone “very attuned to forward-thinking, rather than relying on historical data.”
For months, Donald Trump has been in favor of replacing Jerome Powell as Fed chairman, due to their disagreements over interest rate cuts.
In his role as Treasury Secretary, Bessent is part of the committee tasked with finding a candidate to eventually replace Powell.
Which Trump tariffs on Mexico are still active despite the pause?
Despite the negotiations and the agreement with Trump announced by President Claudia Sheinbaum to avoid the application of 30 percent tariffs, the United States still has some active tariffs against Mexico.
One of the most significant tariffs on Mexico is the 25 percent tariff that the US president decreed due to Mexico’s alleged lack of action to combat fentanyl trafficking.
Furthermore, the Donald Trump administration is keeping tariffs on Mexico active in these cases:
What impact do tariffs have on Mexico?
In his column “The Truth About Tariffs,” Enrique Quintana, editorial director and vice president of El Financiero Bloomberg, points out that Mexico “has played skillfully” under the USMCA and has shown a willingness to cooperate on issues of interest to Trump, such as migration, fentanyl, and security.
According to Quintana, “rather than stable agreements, a dynamic of permanent negotiation has been established with Trump. Each concession can be revised, conditioned, or withdrawn at any time.”
A few days ago, Enrique Quintana himself stated that a 30 percent tariff on products exported from Mexico would entail a cost of nearly $150 billion, “which would be paid by North American importers.”
He stated this in his column “Trump’s Letter: Threat or Imminent Reality?”
“The Mexican negotiators are betting that this impact will be so great that it will be unacceptable to many large North American companies, and that they will act to avoid it,” Quintana explained.
Source: elfinanciero
