Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and United States President Donald Trump have agreed to extend a looming trade deadline for “a few more weeks” to discuss pending issues with Washington.
Sheinbaum said on Monday that she spoke with her counterpart on Saturday.
The US agreed in July to pause for 90 days an increase in tariffs on some Mexican goods to 30 percent – from 25 percent – as the two countries continued talks aimed at reaching a new trade deal. That pause was set to end this week.
“I was interested in making sure that November 1 didn’t arrive without us having communicated and that we were in agreement that our teams were still working,” Sheinbaum said in her regular morning press conference, adding that the two countries were aiming to resolve 54 outstanding trade barriers.
“We’re practically closing this issue,” she said.
Mexico’s peso strengthened 0.29 percent to 18.38 per US dollar following Sheinbaum’s comments.
Mexico has been largely spared the brunt of Trump administration tariffs thanks to the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade pact that is up for review next year.
Earlier in October, Sheinbaum said that she was confident Mexico would reach a favourable agreement with the US on trade and that she was planning to unveil new advances in projects developing electric vehicles, semiconductors, satellites, drones and an artificial intelligence lab.
“We continue working, and there is no situation in the near future where there could be any special tariff on November 1st,” Sheinbaum said.
Trump said last week that he was ending trade talks with Canada, with the White House citing frustration with how negotiations had been progressing.
When asked how Mexico would react and whether Mexico could negotiate separately with Canada, Sheinbaum said last week, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
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