March 7th, 2025: Trump Hits Pause On Trade War With Mexico And Canada & South Korea Accidentally Bombs Their Own Civilians
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What is the major update on the Trump administration’s trade war?
It's Friday, 7 March. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll kick things off with a major update on the Trump administration's trade war as the president pauses tariffs on a host of goods from Mexico and Canada for a period of one month, praising Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum's cooperation with the U.S. on the southern border. Later in the show, European Union leaders gathered for emergency talks in Brussels on Thursday in the hopes of drastically boosting defense spending following President Trump's reversal of U.S. policies on Ukraine. Plus, at least 15 people were injured in South Korea on Thursday after their military accidentally dropped eight bombs, oops, on a civilian area during a joint training exercise near the North Korean border.
And in today's back of the brief, anti-Israel protests took a radical turn this week at Columbia University as an anti-Semitic mob calling for, quote, death to America, hung an effigy of a school administrator and handed out flyers authored by the Hamas media office glorifying the brutal 7 October attacks. Meanwhile, the gormless university administrators, well, they continue to negotiate with the mob. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. In another whiplash-inducing reversal, the Trump administration is walking back their plans to impose crippling trade tariffs on America's northern and southern neighbors over the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
Why is the Trump administration pausing tariffs on Mexico and Canada?
On Thursday, President Trump signed executive actions delaying his 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada for all products covered by the current North American Free Trade Treaty, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. despite enacting the new taxes just days ago. For now, the exemption will only last through April 2nd, the same day that Trump plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on all major U.S. trading partners, including longtime allies. And that's according to a report from Reuters. The announcement came one day after Trump said he would delay tariffs on all automakers for one month in order to give that sector time to adjust to supply chains and move more production to the U.S., though realistically, well, such an undertaking would obviously take much longer.
Automakers are expected to be hit particularly hard by the tariffs as car parts often cross US borders six to eight times during assembly, meaning that they could be taxed multiple times. Now, we should stress that the White House's latest move does not constitute a total reprieve from the tariffs. Economists estimate that only half of the products coming from Mexico and roughly 38% from Canada are covered by the new one-month exemption. All other goods will still face the 25% tariffs enacted on Tuesday, while Canadian energy products such as crude oil, petroleum gas, and coal will face a 10% tax. The partial pause, reportedly, came after discussions that Trump held with Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum on Thursday and separate talks led by White House officials with Canadian leaders. In a surprisingly friendly post on Truth Social, Trump said, quote, I did this as an accommodation and out of respect for President Scheinbaum.
Our relationship has been a very good one and we are working hard together on the border, both in terms of stopping illegal aliens from entering the U.S. and likewise stopping fentanyl. The president added, quote, Thank you to President Scheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation, end quote. Now, while Trump singled out Scheinbaum from Mexico for praise in his statement, well, don't expect the same warmth from the president for Canadian leaders. While Mexico delayed any announcement of economic retaliation following Tuesday's implementation of the tariffs, which theoretically was buying her some goodwill with Trump, Canada swiftly struck back by imposing an immediate 25% tariff on nearly $30 billion worth of American goods, while threatening more in the near future.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also criticized the tariff move on Tuesday as, quote, a very dumb thing to do. He dug in his heels further on Thursday, saying that he expects the trade war to continue with the U.S. for the foreseeable future, and that Canada would not lift its retaliatory actions unless the White House permanently rolls back all the tariffs.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the major update on the Trump administration’s trade war?
0:12–1:53
2
Why is the Trump administration pausing tariffs on Mexico and Canada?
1:53–6:32
3
How are the EU leaders responding to Trump's policy changes on Ukraine?
6:32
4
What happened during the South Korean military training exercise?
1:08–4:11
5
What is causing tension between the U.S. and Canada regarding trade?
4:11
6
How are anti-Israel protests escalating at Columbia University?
1:30–8:33
7
What financial measures is the EU considering for defense spending?
8:33–19:53
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The President's Daily Brief
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