The U.S. leader said that in the coming month the two countries will try to negotiate a “deal.” He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would meet with high-level Mexican officials.

The resolution of the U.S.-Mexican tariff dispute, at least for a month, came as Trump also talked with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the same 25% tariff he plans to impose on Canadian exports to the U.S. at midnight Monday, with the two leaders agreeing to talk again at mid-afternoon Monday.

Both Sheinbaum and Trudeau, representing two of the three biggest U.S. trading partners along with China, had protested Trump’s tariff plans and vowed to retaliate. Trump hit China with a 10% tariff boost and Beijing said it would file a protest with the World Trade Organization.

Canada is one of the closest U.S. allies, but Trump complained in a social media post earlier Monday, “Canada doesn’t even allow U.S. Banks to open or do business there. What’s that all about? Many such things, but it’s also a DRUG WAR, and hundreds of thousands of people have died in the U.S. from drugs pouring through the Borders of Mexico and Canada.”

It was not clear what Trump was referring to since U.S. banks have operated in Canada for decades.

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Monday that it was misleading to characterize the showdown over tariffs as a trade war despite the planned retaliations from Mexico, Canada and China and the risk of escalation.

“Read the executive order where President Trump was absolutely, 100% clear that this is not a trade war,” Hassett said. “This is a drug war.”

Trump acknowledged Sunday that the new tariffs on the three biggest U.S. trading partners could hit inflation-weary Americans with higher prices for groceries, gasoline, cars and other consumer goods, but said the higher tariffs would be “worth the price” to bolster U.S. interests.

Tensions ramped up Monday with the leader of Canada’s most populous province of Ontario announcing that he is ending a contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink internet services in response to Trump’s new tariff on Canada. Musk, possibly the world’s richest man, is a key Trump adviser seeking to sharply cut U.S. government spending and trim the ranks of 2.3-million federal civilian workforce through buyouts.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who said he is also banning American companies from provincial contracts, signed a $68 million deal with Musk’s company in November to deliver high-speed internet to remote residents in rural and northern Ontario.

“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford said in a post on X.

Trump justified the new tariffs by claiming the three countries were not doing enough to halt undocumented migrants and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

U.S. consumers could face higher prices because companies that pay the tariffs to the federal government to import goods from other countries then often pass on at least part, if not all, of their higher costs to consumers, rather than absorb their extra expenses themselves.

In social media postings Sunday, Trump aimed most of his comments at Canada, targeting one of the closest U.S. allies. The U.S. Census Bureau said the U.S. had a $55 billion trade deficit with Canada last year.

“Why? There is no reason,” Trump contended. “We don’t need anything they have. We have unlimited Energy, should make our own Cars, and have more Lumber than we can ever use.”

With the new tariffs, Trump said, “Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!) But we will Make America Great Again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid.”

Trump aides had previously shied from acknowledging that tariffs could raise U.S. consumer prices. Nationwide polls in the U.S. showed that consumer frustration over rising prices during the last four years were a major factor in his November election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris.

Trump has since acknowledged that it will not be easy to curb higher grocery prices. Trump put the new tariff on energy imports from Canada at 10%, apparently seeking to limit an increase in fuel and electricity prices.

Trudeau said Saturday that his country would hit back with 25% percent levies of its own on select American goods worth $106.6 billion, with a first round on Tuesday followed by a second one in three weeks.

Leaders of several Canadian provinces have already announced retaliatory actions as well, such as the immediate halt of U.S. liquor purchases, and more specifically, orange juice produced in the U.S. state of Florida, whiskey in Tennessee and peanut butter in Kentucky, three states Trump won in last November’s election and all represented by Republicans, like Trump, in the U.S. Senate.

Kirsten Hillman, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., told ABC’s This Week show on Sunday, “We’re really disappointed” and “perplexed” by Trump’s actions and said she hoped that Trump would back off before Tuesday. But she acknowledged that “it’s really in the president’s hands” whether that happens.

Hillman said that “less than 1% of illegal immigrants” entering the U.S. travel across its northern border with Canada. She said Canada has invested “in a lot of equipment” to curb unauthorized border crossings and conducted joint exercises with the U.S. to catch migrants.

Before backing off on Monday, Mexico’s Sheinbaum said she had directed her economy minister to “implement Plan B,” which includes yet-unspecified “tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests,” without specifying what U.S. goods her government would target.

U.S. exports to Mexico totaled more than $322 billion in 2023, Census Bureau data showed, while the U.S. imported more than $475 billion worth of Mexican products.

China denounced the new tariffs on its exports, with Beijing saying it would challenge them at the World Trade Organization and take unspecified “countermeasures.” The U.S. had a $279 billion trade deficit with China in 2023, the largest figure for any of its trading partners.

China’s response stopped short of the immediate escalation that had marked China’s trade showdown with Trump during his first term as president.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that Trump’s move “seriously violates” international trade rules, urging the U.S. to “engage in frank dialogue and strengthen cooperation.”

Source: VOA