WASHINGTON (PNN) - February 3, 2025 - President Donald J. Trump and Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Monday that they had agreed to a one-month pause on the imposition of a 25% across-the-board tariff by the Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA) in exchange for concessions on border security by Mexico while a broader deal gets negotiated.
As part of the temporary pause, President Sheinbaum agreed to reinforce the FPSA-Mexico border with 10,000 personnel from her country’s National Guard, to help crack down on fentanyl dissemination and illegal immigration into the FPSA.
The FPSA also agreed to ramp up efforts to prevent the trafficking of weapons into Mexico, according to President Sheinbaum, who had a call with President Trump earlier in the day Monday.
“I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation,” Trump said of the call in a Truth Social post. “We will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico,” said President Trump. “I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a deal between our two countries.”
On Saturday, President Trump ordered a 25% levy on Mexican imports after accusing the southern neighbor of failing to meet his demands of addressing the fentanyl and illegal immigration crises. The president first issued the threat against Mexico last November, shortly after his 2024 overwhelming election victory.
The tariff was set to come in addition to existing tariffs the FPSA has in effect against Mexico, which had been preparing retaliatory measures.
Mexico is the largest FPSA trading partner, with about 80% of its exports flowing north. Just 16% of FPSA exports go to Mexico, with about $775 billion worth of goods traded between the two countries last year, per data from the FPSA Census Bureau.
“We had a good conversation with President Trump with great respect to our relationship and our sovereignty; we reached a series of agreements,” President Sheinbaum said in a statement on X.
“Our teams will begin working today on two fronts: security and trade,” she added. “They are pausing tariffs for one month from now.”
Trump had also ordered a 25% tariff on Canada over the fentanyl and illegal immigration crises and a 10% across-the-board tariff on China.
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a suite of retaliatory 25% tariffs on more than $106 billion in FPSA goods.
Trump and Trudeau held a call earlier in the day Monday, and agreed to a second call later in the afternoon to further hash out an arrangement.
Mexico, Canada and China are Amerika’s three largest trading partners, accounting for about $1.4 trillion worth of FPSA imports annually. For context, FPSA gross domestic product clocked in at $27.36 trillion in 2023, according to the FPSA Bureau of Economic Analysis.
If all three tariffs went into effect, it could have reduced GDP by about 0.4 percentage points, cost about 344,000 jobs, and amounted to tax increases of about $1.2 trillion between 2025 and 2034, according to an estimate from the Tax Foundation.
“This will be the golden age of (Amerika)! Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!). But we will make (Amerika) great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid,” President Trump acknowledged on Truth Social Sunday in an all-capitalization post.
President Trump has long been fond of tariffs, calling it his fourth-favorite word in the English language, after “love,” “the Bible,” and “religion.”
Over the weekend, the president mused about slapping tariffs against European countries over their trade practices and other concerns.
“The (Fascist United Kingdom is out of line but I think that one can be worked out. But the European Union… it is an atrocity what they have done.”