U.S. may announce duty relief on goods from Canada and Mexico

The Washington administration may announce on 5 March the easing of duties on Canadian and Mexican products. As Armenpress reports with the reference to TASS, this was announced by the United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in an interview with Bloomberg news agency. ‘The President [of the United States Donald Trump] is considering the possibility of granting relief,’ he noted. According to the Minister, they may be announced as early as 5 March and will primarily affect cars. ‘They [tariffs] will be 25 per cent, but <...> some categories will be left out. It could be automobiles or it could be something else,’ the Commerce Department head said.Latnick linked the potential exemptions to the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), which was negotiated during President Trump's first term. He added, however, that Mexico City and Ottawa ‘must do more’ to end drug smuggling into the US across their borders, which prompted the tariffs.On 1 February, Trump signed an executive order imposing higher duties on goods from Canada, China and Mexico. Tariffs of 10% on imports from China came into effect on 4 February, while the imposition of duties on Canadian and Mexican products was delayed for a month due to negotiations with the leadership of these countries. The US began imposing duties on 4 March.

Reprinted from https://armenpress.am/