WSJ What’s News
Goods From Canada, Mexico Still Exposed to U.S. Tariffs, Despite Pause
Fri, 07 Mar 2025
P.M. Edition for Mar. 7. Despite Thursday's pause on tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico many products are still exposed to them. WSJ economics reporter Chao Deng tells us which goods fall under the new exemption and why it is so hard to parse. Plus, Fed chair Jerome Powell says that changing trade policies keep the Federal Reserve in a holding pattern on rates. And the Justice Department opens an investigation into whether egg producers have conspired to raise prices. Alex Ossola hosts. Listen to “Palmer Luckey's 'I Told You So' Tour: AI Weapons and Vindication” in Bold Names. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What are the key economic indicators discussed in the podcast?
Uncertainty around trade policy keeps the Fed in a holding pattern on rates. Plus, which goods from Canada and Mexico are still exposed to U.S. tariffs? The answer is less straightforward than it might seem.
What we're going to see in the next month or so is businesses scrambling to figure out, well, should they file the paperwork? Should they not? What is the cost around filing the paperwork versus maybe just waiting for another month and seeing if Trump's policy changes again?
And are egg producers engaged in foul play in setting prices? The Justice Department wants to find out. It's Friday, March 7th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. New data out from the Labor Department today shows that the U.S. added 151,000 jobs in February.
That's slightly below the gain of 170,000 jobs economists expected to see, but better than the 125,000 jobs added in January. The unemployment rate, which is based on a separate survey from the jobs figures, rose to 4.1 percent from 4 percent. To give us some insight behind the numbers, I'm joined now by WSJ economics reporter Justin Lehart. OK, Justin, what stood out to you in this jobs report?
The first thing that stood out was we saw a decline in federal government jobs. We saw a decline of 10,000. And so economists don't think that the layoffs that we saw last month have really registered just because of when the Labor Department collects the data for the report. Those layoffs really hadn't happened yet. However, there was a hiring freeze.
So it does suggest that the hiring freeze that went into effect when Trump came into office, that may have led to increased attrition. And so that's sort of the leading edge of some of the government job cuts that we expect to see.
And of course, the big question every time we get a Dodge report, does this change anything for the Fed?
Not at this point. We might see weakness in the months ahead. Most economists expect to see that. This month, the Fed can leave rates on hold as widely expected to. If you see deterioration in the job market, that could lead to a cut. There is a complication, of course, with tariffs expected to raise prices. You could get inflation going one way, jobs going the other way.
That puts the Fed in a very tough spot.
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