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President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Mexico and some imports from Canada for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. The White House insists its tariffs are about stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, but the taxes proposed by Trump have caused a gaping wound in the decades-old North American trade partnership, and Canada has felt compelled to quickly take aggressive countermeasures. Trump’s tariff plans have also caused the stock market to sink and alarmed U.S. consumers. In addition to his claims about fentanyl, Trump has insisted that the tariffs could be resolved by fixing the trade deficit and he emphasized while speaking in the Oval Office that he still plans to impose reciprocal tariffs starting on April 2. Most of the tariffs go on April the second, Trump said before signing the orders. And then we have some temporary ones and small ones, relatively small, although its a lot of money having to do with Mexico and Canada. Trump said he was not looking to extend the exemption on the 25% tariff for autos for another month. Imports from Mexico that comply with the 2020 USMCA trade pact would be excluded from the 25% tariffs for a month, according to the orders signed by Trump. Imports from Canada that comply with the trade deal would also avoid the 25% tariffs for a month, while the potash that U.S. farmers import from Canada would be tariffed at 10%, the same rate at which Trump wants to tariff Canadian energy products. Roughly 62% of imports from Canada would likely still face the new tariffs because they’re not USMCA compliant, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to preview the orders on a call with reporters. Half of imports from Mexico that are not USCMA compliant would also be taxed under the orders being signed by Trump, the official said. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has planned to announce any retaliatory measures on Sunday, but Trump credited her with making progress on illegal immigration and drug smuggling as a reason for again pausing tariffs that were initially supposed to go into full effect in February. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border. Trumps on-again, off-again tariffs threats have roiled financial markets, lowered consumer confidence, and enveloped many businesses in an uncertain atmosphere that could delay hiring and investment. Major U.S. stock markets briefly bounced off lows after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick previewed the month-long pauses on CNBC on Thursday. Significant declines already seen this week resumed within an hour. The S&P 500 stock index has fallen below where it was before Trump was elected. Sheinbaum said she and Trump had an excellent and respectful call in which we agreed that our work and collaboration have yielded unprecedented results, on a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Mexico has cracked down on cartels, sent troops to the U.S. border and delivered 29 top cartel bosses long chased by American authorities to the Trump administration in a span of weeks. At a press conference, Sheinbaum elaborated on her call with Trump Thursday, saying that she told the president that Mexico was making great strides in fulfilling his security demands. I told him were getting results, Sheinbaum said. But the U.S. imposed the tariffs, so she asked Trump how are we going to continue cooperating, collaborating with something that hurts the people of Mexico? She added that practically all of the trade between the U.S. and Mexico will be exempt from tariffs until April 2. She said the two countries will continue to work together on migration and security, and to cut back on fentanyl trafficking to the U.S. From January to February, the amount of fentanyl seized at the border dropped more than 41%, according to Sheinbaum, citing data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She cited the dip as meeting a commitment made to Trump. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canadas most populous province, said that starting Monday the province will charge 25% more for electricity shipped to 1.5 million Americans in response to Trumps tariff plan. Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan. This whole thing with President Trump is a mess, Ford said Thursday. This reprieve, weve went down this road before. He still threatens the tariffs on April 2. Fords office said that the tariff would remain in place even if theres a one month reprieve from the Americans. Ford has said that so long as the threat of tariffs continue, Ontarios position will not change. Lutnick said that he will be watching fentanyl overdose deaths in the U.S. as a key metric he will focus on when evaluating Canada and Mexico’s efforts to combat the synthetic opioid. In his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, Trump portrayed tariffs which he has also levied on China at 20% due to their role in fentanyl production as a source of increasing wealth and power for the United States. Yet most economists expect the import duties to send prices higher, slow the economy, and potentially cost jobs. The Yale University Budget Lab has estimated that the tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico would increase inflation by a full percentage point, cut growth by half a percentage point and cost the average household about $1,600 in disposable income. Trump appeared to acknowledge Tuesday night that there could be some pain: Therell be a little disturbance, but were okay with that. It wont be much. Christopher Rugaber and Josh Boak Associated Press writers Rob Gillies, and Megan Janetsky contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
Efforts to hollow out the federal workforce by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have resulted in a dramatic rise in layoff announcements. The latest monthly data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that employers in the United States announced more than 172,000 layoffs during February, which was an increase of 245% from January and the highest monthly total since mid-2020, during the pandemic. Further, it was the highest number of layoffs for the month of February since 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, when more than 186,000 layoffs were announced. So far, through the first two months of the year, employers have cut a total of 222,000 jobs, an increase of 33% over last year. Which industries have been hardest hit? DOGE’s slashing of the federal governments head count meant a huge increase in government layoffs. In fact, through February, the report notes that 62,530 government jobs have been eliminated, which was an increase of 41,311% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the retail and technology sectors continue to see significant cuts. Further, almost 39,000 jobs were lost in the retail sector, 14,554 in technology, and 13,804 in the services and consumer products sector during February. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump appears to have backed off issuing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education on Thursday, but is expected to do so soon, according to multiple reports including from the Wall Street Journal and NPR, who have seen a draft version and confirmed the details. The news comes a day after Linda McMahon was installed as the new education secretary, following her recent Senate confirmation. Here’s what you need to know. What is happening at the Department of Education? Dismantling the department has been a long time coming. In recent months, Trump has attacked it, calling it “a big con job,” while the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has slashed dozens of contracts; placed dozens of others on administrative leave; targeted its diversity programs; and gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, where many employees have been fired or suspended. Trump is all but guaranteed to face legal challenges, because only Congress can abolish federal agencies, and the administration’s push is just another example of how Trump is trying to cross the boundaries of his actual presidential power. Meanwhile, advocates and congressional leaders have been mounting a pushback campaign, including Republicans, whose districts rely heavily on federal funding from the Education Department. Educators, along with members of Congress, are also worried about what will happen to the department’s billions of dollars meant for our nation’s students and schools. So what does the Department of Education do anyway? Simply put, the Department of Education distributes billions of federal dollars to colleges and schools, and manages the federal government’s student loan portfolio. It also maintains and regulates vital services for our nation’s students, guaranteeing an education to low-income, homeless, and disabled kids, per the Associated Press. The department is the smallest cabinet-level agency, with around 4,500 employees. Polls show more than 60% of Americans oppose eliminating it. Interestingly, a majority of public K-12 school funding comes from the states, or locally, with only about 14% from federal funds. Universities and colleges, for their part, depend mostly on the department’s dollars for student financial aid and research grants, which have also been halted. Trump has tied the funding to his own political agenda, threatening to cut off federal money to all institutions that teach what he calls critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content, and favoring those who support his school choice programs and ending teacher tenure.
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E-Commerce
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