President Donald Trump issued exemptions on tariffs for a variety of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada just two days after he put the sweeping tariffs in place leaving investors and businesses grappling with the whiplash of his back-and-forth trade policy.
The exemptions to the 25% tariffs enacted Tuesday would apply to about half of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and around 38% of goods from Canada that comply with the North American trade deal reached during Trump’s first term, according to a senior administration official.
It’s the second time in less than two months that Trump has announced and then backtracked on tariffs on the United States’ neighbors. The moves have rattled the stock market, with businesses warning that the added costs could drive prices higher and cut into their profits. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their worst week since September.
“The can keeps getting pushed, kicked down the road, and we don’t know what that means,” said Chuck Dardas, president of AlphaUSA, an auto parts manufacturer in Livonia, Michigan. He later added: “To make investments and to do things we need to do we need some certainty. Not that we can have perfect certainty but not be on a constant diet of, well, we’ll wait till next month to see if the ax is going to fall.”
“The only thing, I guess, to be certain is that we’ve got 30 more days to worry about it,” Dardas said.
Credit: NBC