Trump’s April 2 Deadline for New Tariffs is a Distraction from Deeper North American Trade Challenges
Photograph Source: silviadinatale© – CC BY 2.0
Mexicans have heaped massive praise on their president, Claudia Sheinbaum, for her negotiations against an increasingly frenzied and unpredictable Donald Trump. She drew hundreds of thousands to Mexico City’s central square — Zócalo — on March 9 to rally for national sovereigntyafter Trump agreed to delay U.S. import tariffs on the country. And she is admired worldwide as well.
Trump has credited Sheinbaum’s response to his demands on drug and migration controls as the reason for pushing back tariffs. But she also succeeded in delaying them by making it clear that they would impact U.S. companies, especially automobile manufacturers, that export from Mexico.
It’s clear that Trump’s flip-flopping and the delay of the tariffs till April 2 are primarily due to the intervention of the CEOs of the Big Three US auto manufacturers: General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler).
According to the New York Times, these executives told Trump that tariffs on cars and car parts from Canada and Mexico would wreck their profits by adding millions of dollars in costs. They also reportedly communicated that auto production in those countries support American jobs in parts manufacturing and at dealerships.
The situation is similar on the other side. It’s not merely a sense of patriotism that has motivated Mexican industry to back Sheinbaum in the fight to stop tariffs – their businesses also depend on those cross-border supply chains.
As University of Toronto professor Dimitri Anastakis puts it:
“[I]t’s clear that Mr. Trump knows nothing of the role that U.S. leadership played in creating an integrated North American auto sector. And while he may have no interest in understanding history, he’s nonetheless about to learn a sharp lesson: that maintaining – and even strengthening – the integrated auto sector remains in his country’s best interest, whether he likes it or not.”
Despite Trump’s “respect” for Sheinbaum (a word frankly alien to him), it’s clear that the U.S. president ultimately responds to the capitalist interests of his country. Because of industry pressure, for instance, he temporarily broke promises of tariffs made to unions, like the United Auto Workers, who believe such actions would bring factories and jobs back to Detroit and the Rust Belt.
Despite the fuss about tariffs, it’s important to look beyond them and establish the essentials of a trilateral relationship based on human rights and good jobs for all North American workers.
The threat of imposing tariffs has been over-exaggerated in Mexico, in my opinion. Although it’s true that the 12 states in the center and North of the country most dependent on nearshoring investments would be affected, the majority of Mexican industry is separated from export markets.
Small and medium businesses with less than 250 employees make up 99.8 percent of the national economy and employ 68.4 percent of workers, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. And according to the Mexican government only 7.8 percent of manufacturing exports from Mexico pertain to micro, small, and medium companies.
The scheduled 2026 revision of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) should focus on ways to support the majority of workers, businesses, and the environment rather than merely maximizing the profits of large, transnational corporations. But since Trump’s re-election, it’s clear this debate will focus on the tariff question that has been distracting not just in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, but at a global level as well. Trump is an expert in diverting attention by bullying and lying.
As Senator Bernie Sanders put it after Trump’s recent address to Congress, “the purpose of all of this lying is not just to push his hateful right-wing ideology. It is not just to try to divide us up. It’s more than that. It’s a masterful effort to deflect attention away from the most important issues facing the people of our country, issues that Trump and his billionaire friends do not want to address because it’s not in their financial interests to do so.”
Trump appears to have no interest in tackling the revision of the USMCA comprehensively. This agreement isn’t just about trade — the document contains 34 chapters, in addition to annexes, protocols, and a climate cooperation compromise. The chapters contain everything from a vague acknowledgement of legal obligations to indigenous communities to overly broad rights for foreign investors.
Beyond tariffs, when and how are issues like intellectual property, telecommunications and digital rights, small businesses and climate change being discussed? Where are abuses of investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) suits being publicly discussed?
Rather than falling into the tariff trap, we need to promote a progressive trade agenda for people and the planet. Only then can we hope to achieve the long-sought goal of a collaborative, “three amigos” region of shared prosperity in North America.
This piece was originally published in La Jornada and translated by Chris Mills Rodrigo
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