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Automakers received temporary reprieve Wednesday from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, as concerns mounted over consumer impacts and talks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yielded no immediate breakthrough.Following discussions with the “Big Three” US automakers — Stellantis, Ford and General Motors — Trump decided to “give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, referring to the North American free trade pact.”They made the ask, and the president is happy to do it,” Leavitt told reporters.Wall Street stocks rallied after the announcement, with shares of the three automakers each surging about six percent or more.The American Automotive Policy Council said it applauded Trump’s move.But prospects of wider relief were dampened after Trump’s call with Trudeau. The US leader said he was unconvinced that Ottawa had done enough to address Washington’s concerns over smuggling of the dangerous drug fentanyl.Canada contributes less than one percent of fentanyl to the United States’ illicit supply, according to Canadian and US government data. But Trump has shrugged off these figures.On social media, Trump accused Trudeau of using the dispute to “stay in power,” but noted their discussion ended in a “somewhat” friendly manner.Later on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly, according to a US statement.”Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the importance of US-Canadian relations and reiterated that the Trump Administration will continue to put Americans’ safety and national security first,” said US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.Trump’s sharp 25-percent tariffs on US imports from Canada and Mexico — with a lower rate for Canadian energy — kicked in Tuesday, sending global markets tumbling and straining ties between the neighbors.Ottawa swiftly announced retaliatory levies, while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum plans to unveil her response at a mass rally on Sunday.Trump has cited illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking in imposing tariffs, though he frequently lambasts alleged trade imbalances when discussing levies.- More exemptions? -Consumer items appear poised for US price hikes after Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.These include products like avocados, strawberries, electronics and gasoline.Of the agricultural products imported from Mexico to the United States in 2023, more than 72 percent were fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as beer and other alcohol, government figures showed.Trump said Tuesday that tariffs would bring “a little disturbance” to the world’s biggest economy.Leavitt defended Trump’s remarks Wednesday as “realistic,” saying that standing up to foreign nations “requires a little bit of disruption.”But she added of tariffs: “The president is open to hearing about additional exemptions.”Earlier Wednesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump was mulling market segments where he could provide temporary relief.Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada are a heavy blow given that the three countries have a trade pact — which the US president renegotiated in his first term.- ‘Other trading partners’ -Sheinbaum said Wednesday that Mexico has to take key decisions for its future, adding that “if necessary, other trading partners will be sought.”Expressing a preference for a negotiated solution, she has said she anticipates speaking to Trump by phone on Thursday about tariffs on Mexican goods.She earlier vowed retaliatory action and called for supporters to gather in Mexico City’s main square on Sunday to hear details on her government’s response.Lutnick told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday that broader reciprocal levies, tailored to each US trading partner, were still coming on April 2.Trump has vowed tariffs targeting friend and foe to remedy practices deemed as unfair, slamming the European Union particularly.Some of these duties could come immediately, although Lutnick said others could take a month or longer.France’s President Emmanuel Macron called planned US tariffs on European products “incomprehensible,” adding Wednesday that he hoped to “dissuade” Trump from them.This week, Trump also inked an order doubling an additional tariff rate on Chinese imports from 10 percent to 20 percent, similarly over the country’s alleged role in illicit fentanyl entering the United States.The duties pile atop existing ones on Chinese products.Beijing hit back, promising 10-percent and 15-percent tariffs on a range of US agricultural imports.Economists warn that tariff hikes stand to bog down economic growth and add to US inflation.

Christie’s first auction of art made by artificial intelligence (AI) ended Wednesday with mixed results, providing scant clues as to the future of the new and controversial medium. Fourteen of the 34 lots put on the block during the 14-day online auction either received no qualifying bids or were sold for less than the minimum Christie’s had estimated.One did go for more than expected — an animation by well-known digital artist Refik Anadol titled “Machine Hallucinations – ISS Dreams – A” which fetched the highest price at $277,200.But an “Emerging Faces” creation by American artist Pindar Van Arman, touted as another highlight of the auction, saw no qualifying bids.A work by the late American artist Charles Csuri, considered a pioneer of “computer art,” went for $50,400, slightly below the bottom of a price range announced by the auction house.Auction sales tallied $728,784 in total, according to Christie’s.For Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s director of digital art, the auction’s results confirm that collectors recognize the influence and importance of the artists whose creations were featured.”There could have been a better selection of works that are more representative of new media and AI,” said Steven Sacks, founder of New York gallery bitforms, which has been exhibiting digital art since 2001.”The bigger conversation is — should they be at auction yet?”Sacks felt more time was still needed to educate people about the medium and for artists to gain credibility and exposure.A separate group of artists had launched a petition urging Christie’s to cancel the sale.The 6,490 or so signatories argued that some pieces had been created with the help of AI models “known to have made unauthorized use of works protected by intellectual property law.”For them, auctioning AI-created art lets money be made from “massive theft of works by human artists.”In 2023, several artists sued generative AI start-ups, including popular platforms Midjourney and Stability AI, contending the software models were “trained” with human-made works to which they had no rights.Christie’s and rival Sotheby’s have featured AI-created works at auctions in the past, but this was Christie’s first event devoted to works conceived with the new technology.In 2018, an algorithm-generated painting by French collective Obvious fetched $432,500, including fees and commissions, stunning the art world.And in 2022, an animated work by Refik Anadol was acquired, also at Christie’s, for $1.38 million.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Democrats who heckled him during a speech to Congress behaved so badly they deserve to lose the next congressional election.On Tuesday evening in a speech to a joint session of Congress, Trump touted his radical policies as he celebrated his drive to dismantle much of the federal bureaucracy and said his administration was “just getting started.”Republican Party members applauded almost every line, but protests also began mid-speech, with one Democratic congressman ejected because he refused to stop heckling Trump and shaking his walking stick at the president.Other Democrats silently held up placards reading “False” and “That’s a lie!”In a post Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “The Democrats should lose the Midterms based on their behavior at last night’s Joint Address to Congress.””They didn’t even have the common courtesy to stand, smile, or applaud,” he wrote, adding that Republicans should campaign on this behavior in the next midterm election in 2026.Earlier the White House accused Democrats of being the “party of insanity and hate,” citing their boisterous protests as Trump spoke.”The Democrats exposed themselves as the party of insanity and hate,” Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters.At one moment in Trump’s speech, numerous Democrats yelled “January 6!,” referring to his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol after he refused to concede his 2020 election loss.”The behavior of Democrats last night was completely disgraceful and demonstrated how severely out of touch they are with the American public,” Leavitt said.”It was the most shameful moment in the history of presidential addresses in that beautiful chamber.”In what was supposed to be a unifying moment for our country, Democrat members of Congress instead screamed at the president of the United States.”

Donald Trump’s promised war on drug cartels will stop Mexico from becoming a “narco state,” US Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday, as he hinted that Washington remained ready to take military action against the gangs.Speaking at the US southern border, Vance said the administration’s focus on stamping out illegal immigration and on designating gangs as terrorist organizations was aimed primarily at stemming the flow of drugs into the United States.But, he said: “I actually think he’s doing a huge favor to the people of Mexico, because if they don’t get control of these cartels, the people of Mexico are going to wake up in a narco state where the cartels have more power than their own government.”Vance’s comments came after Trump used a joint session of Congress to rail against what he called the “open border” policies of former president Joe Biden, and issued a blood-curdling warning over criminal gangs operating in Mexico.”The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control,” Trump told Congress on Tuesday.”They have total control over a whole nation. Posing a grave threat to our national security.”The cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels.”Vance, the most senior figure in Trump’s administration to visit the border, said there was no talk of US military forces crossing into Mexico to tackle the gangs, which he said were now classified alongside the so-called Islamic State group as “terrorists.”But he left the door open.”I’m not going to make any announcements about any invasions of Mexico here today,” he said.”The President has a megaphone, and of course, he’ll speak to… these issues as he feels necessary.”The administration would rather that Mexico dealt with the issue, he said.”We want the Mexican government to help itself, but also in the process, to help the American people. It’s going to destabilize the entire country of Mexico, the entire government, if they don’t take it more seriously,” he said.”We’re hopeful that they will, and if they don’t, then of course, we’ll figure out what to do from there.”- Deployment -Vance was speaking in Eagle Pass, a major crossing point between Mexico and the United States, where he had travelled with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.Hegseth, who last week authorized the deployment of 3,000 troops to the southern border, hailed a whole-of-government approach to stemming illegal immigration, which he said had reduced unauthorized crossings in the area from 1,500 a day to 30.”It’s incredible to hear from our partners about what we’ve been able to allow them to do, facilitate them, and we’ve seen it in the numbers, 98 percent drop in crossings on the southern border,” he said, without giving a time frame.Illegal border crossings decreased for many months before Trump took office, official figures show.And, he promised, more resources were on their way.”The Defense Department has assets that we can bring to bear, not just troops, not just surveillance, not just equipment, but actual planning and capabilities that enhance what Border Patrol is already doing,” he said.Trump campaigned heavily on stemming migration into the US, an issue that proved popular with anxious voters.He continues to claim that migrants are responsible for the majority of criminality in the country, despite evidence that the US-born population commits far more crimes per capita.

The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, to be deputy attorney general, the second-highest ranking job in the Justice Department.Blanche, who defended Trump in his hush money trial in New York and his two federal cases, was approved by a 52-46 vote in the Republican-dominated Senate.Trump, the first US president ever to be convicted of a crime, has named three of his former lawyers to top jobs in the Justice Department.Emil Bove, who also defended Trump in the hush money trial and the federal cases, has been named principal associate deputy attorney general, the third-ranking position.John Sauer, who successfully argued Trump’s presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court, was named Solicitor General, the lawyer in the Justice Department who represents the federal government in cases before the nation’s highest court.Pam Bondi, a former Florida prosecutor and Trump loyalist, was named to head the Justice Department as attorney general.Blanche and Bove, both former federal prosecutors in New York, defended Trump in the New York case that ended in his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.They also represented Trump in the two federal cases brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith.Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and with mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.Both cases were dismissed after Trump won the November election, in light of a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president. Objecting to Blanche’s nomination, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin expressed concern that he would be a willing party to Trump’s calls for retribution against his political foes.”Since the president has taken office we’ve already witnessed the weaponization of justice,” Durbin said. “Mr. Blanche will not provide the necessary independence to avoid that.”A number of top Justice Department officials have been fired, demoted or reassigned since Trump took office along with senior agents at the FBI.Bove has also been embroiled in controversy after seeking the dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.Bove’s bid to drop the charges prompted allegations that it was a quid pro quo in exchange for Adams, a Democrat, agreeing to enforce Trump’s immigration crackdown — a claim denied by the mayor.The unusual request triggered a wave of protest resignations in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and in Washington.

The Democratic mayors of four US cities were hauled over the coals in Congress Wednesday over “pro-criminal” immigration policies, as Republicans seek to back up President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass deportation effort.Boston’s Michelle Wu, Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, Denver’s Michael Johnston and Eric Adams of New York were dressed down over “sanctuary city” policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration agents.All four cities have struggled to cope with a huge influx of migrants crossing from Mexico, and lawmakers in the Republican-led House Oversight Committee pressed the leaders on crime in their streets.”Sanctuary cities make us all less safe and are a public safety nightmare. That is why I led an investigation into sanctuary cities and why these mayors are here today,” said committee chairman James Comer. “We cannot let pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities… Today, Mayors Wu Johnson, Johnston and Adams will be publicly accountable for their failure to follow the law and protect the American people.”Republicans gave Adams an easier time than his fellow mayors as he had made a show of cooperating with the White House on immigration after Trump’s Justice Department dropped a criminal corruption and bribery case against him.Adams, who is running for another term, denied repeatedly that his strong line on immigration was connected to the Justice Department’s decision, claiming there was “no quid pro quo, no agreement — I did nothing wrong.”- Record low entries -The former police officer defended New York’s sanctuary status, however, stating that crime was down last year, and that the city had just seen three straight months of double-digit declines in major offenses.”To be clear: A ‘sanctuary city’ classification does not mean our city will ever be a safe haven for violent criminals. It also does not give New York City the authority to violate federal immigration laws,” he said.Although the policies vary depending on the location, sanctuary cities typically prohibit public officials from telling federal agents about undocumented immigrants if they are at risk of deportation. Denver’s Johnston said that after he was sworn into office, 42,000 migrants arrived in just 18 months in what he termed “the largest per capita influx of any city in America.” He detailed how the city had helped them with housing, job training and other programs, saying that his city had “made a choice” to provide a warm welcome and had come out “stronger and closer” as a result.The hearing came with Vice President JD Vance visiting the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass in Texas to tour an immigration processing facility. Vance, the highest-ranking member of Trump’s second administration to visit the border, was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence.”Because of what Joe Biden did at the border for four years, we had record increases in migrant crime, in fentanyl deaths and in just floods and floods of people who shouldn’t be in our country, who came into the United States of America,” Vance said.But he added: “The good news is, as President Trump said last night… it turns out we didn’t need new laws, we didn’t need fancy legislation. We just needed a new president of the United States.”In a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Trump touted his actions to tackle illegal immigration, telling lawmakers that “as a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded.”Border patrol agents encountered around 8,000 undocumented migrants at US-Mexico frontier in February — the lowest level since monthly records began in 2000 and a fraction of the 140,000 encounters recorded 12 months earlier under Biden.

An Islamic State operative who allegedly helped carry out the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared in a Virginia court Wednesday.Mohammad Sharifullah has confessed to scouting out the route to the airport, where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Justice Department said.The blast at the Abbey Gate killed at least 170 Afghans as well as 13 US troops who were securing the airport’s perimeter.Sharifullah appeared in a court in Alexandria, near the US capital Washington, wearing light blue prison garb and a black face mask. He was officially appointed a public defender and provided with an interpreter.He did not enter a plea. His next appearance will be in the same courthouse on Monday, and he will stay in custody until then, the judge said.Sharifullah — who the US says also goes by the name Jafar and is a member of the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan — was detained by Pakistani authorities and brought to the United States.President Donald Trump triumphantly announced his arrest Tuesday in an address to Congress, calling him “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.”ISK militants gave Sharifullah a cellphone and a SIM card and told him to check the route to the airport, according to the Justice Department’s affidavit in the case.When he gave it the all-clear, they told him to leave the area, it said.”Later that same day, Sharifullah learned of the attack at HKIA described above and recognized the alleged bomber as an ISIS-K operative he had known while incarcerated,” the affidavit said, using an alternative acronym for the group.Sharifullah is charged with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death.”- Moscow attack link -Trump thanked Islamabad “for helping arrest this monster.””This evil ISIS-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in several other attacks, the Justice Department said, including the March 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall attack, in which he said “he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers” by video.The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to Kabul’s airport in the hope of boarding a flight out of the country.Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing onto aircraft as they took off — and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway — aired on news bulletins around the world.In 2023, the White House announced that an Islamic State official involved in plotting the airport attack had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.- ‘Leverage US concerns’ -Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for acknowledging his country’s role in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, and promised to “continue to partner closely with the United States” in a post on X.Pakistan’s strategic importance has waned since the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has seen violence rebound in the border regions.Tensions between the neighboring countries have soared, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil who launch attacks on Pakistan.The Taliban government denies the charges and in a statement said Sharifullah’s arrest “is proof” that ISK hideouts are on Pakistani soil.ISK, which has claimed several recent attacks in Afghanistan, has staged a growing number of bloody international assaults, including killing more than 90 people in an Iranian bombing last year.Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center, said on X that Pakistan was trying to “leverage US concerns about terror in Afghanistan and pitch a renewed security partnership.”

President Donald Trump’s administration aims to cut some 80,000 jobs from the federal department overseeing veterans’ health care and other benefits, according to a memo obtained Wednesday by AFP.The move to downsize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) brings Trump’s unprecedented cost-cutting efforts, led by billionaire adviser Elon Musk, into another sensitive area, with Democrats quick to pounce on the issue.The VA, in concert with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will “identify and eliminate waste, reduce management and bureaucracy, reduce footprint, and increase workforce efficiency,” the memo says.”A portion of the savings garnered will be reinvested in the veterans we serve and the systems required to support our workforce and execute our mission,” it says.The initial aim is to return staffing at the VA — which is responsible for providing benefits including health care, education and disability pay to veterans — to the 2019 level of 399,957 employees, according to the memo.The VA said in early February it employed more than 479,000 people, meaning about 80,000 jobs would be cut under the plan.Some Democratic lawmakers slammed the planned cuts, including Representative Mark Takano of California, who said in a statement: “This deliberate dismantling of VA’s workforce… isn’t just dangerous — it’s an outright betrayal of veterans.””These cuts won’t just impact those seeking health care. They will create chaos across every aspect of VA — delaying benefits, straining claims processing, and making it nearly impossible for student veterans and schools to get the assistance they need.”Senator Patty Murray of Washington said it is “infuriating that two billionaires think they can fire tens of thousands of people responsible for administering the services and care that over nine million veterans across the country count on,” referring to Trump and Musk.”It’s flat-out immoral and a breach of the sacred commitment we make to our veterans to take care of them when they return home,” she said in a statement.Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has launched a vast offensive aimed at slashing public spending and reducing the federal bureaucracy, one of the goals he promised on the campaign trail.To that end, he tapped Musk, a top campaign donor turned close adviser, to lead DOGE, which has cut thousands of government jobs and upended agencies — prompting numerous lawsuits.Among his first targets were members of the federal bureaucracy overseeing policies that promote diversity.His administration has also sought to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), ending many humanitarian and other support projects around the globe.And a source with knowledge of the situation told AFP on Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service — responsible for collecting US federal taxes — is considering letting go up to half of its approximately 90,000 employees.

Ukraine said on Wednesday it planned to hold new talks with the United States after Washington suspended its intelligence sharing, delivering a fresh blow to Kyiv as it battles Russia’s invasion.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been scrambling to contain the fallout from his explosive meeting with Donald Trump last week, in which the US leader berated him in front of international media and kicked him out of the White House.”Today, Ukrainian and American teams began working on an upcoming meeting. We’re seeing forward momentum,” Zelensky said in a late-Wednesday address, without saying when or where new talks would take place.Zelensky also said he would join EU leaders for a Brussels summit on Thursday.Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace deal is signed to ensure that Russia does not invade its neighbour again.The United States said earlier on Wednesday it had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine, two days after announcing it was also suspending military aid.The moves have cemented fears in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could be forced to accept a peace settlement on terms favourable to Moscow or risk losing US support entirely.”We all want a safe future for our people. Not a temporary ceasefire, but an end to the war once and for all. With our coordinated efforts and US leadership, this is entirely achievable,” Zelensky wrote Wednesday on social media following a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.A day earlier, he said he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer”, and that he wanted to “make things right” with Trump. – ‘Generally positive’ -In an address to US Congress on Tuesday, Trump read aloud from a letter he said he had received from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader said he was ready for peace talks.Trump has made ending the war one of his top foreign policy priorities, though has yet to outline his plan for a deal both sides could endorse.Zelensky wants security guarantees from the United States to deter Russia from invading again in the future.Moscow, meanwhile, has refused to rule out giving up any of the land it has captured in its three-year military campaign, and has been buoyed by the suspension of US military aid.The Kremlin welcomed news of the Ukrainian leader’s letter to Trump.”This approach is generally positive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in answer to a question from AFP.However, the Kremlin has repeatedly thrown doubt on whether it would hold talks with Zelensky.On Wednesday, Peskov cited a decree passed by Zelensky that rules out direct negotiations with Putin.The Ukrainian president has since said on multiple occasions he would be willing to meet Putin — but only after Kyiv and its Western allies agree on a common negotiating position.Moscow has also accused Zelensky of not being a legitimate leader, citing the expiration of his five-year mandate following his 2019 election as president.Under Ukrainian martial law, elections are banned during wartime. Zelensky’s key European backers have supported the suspension of any vote amid Russia’s full-scale offensive.Trump has falsely claimed the Ukrainian leader is widely unpopular at home and called on him to hold elections.- Intelligence pause -Outgoing German Chancellor Scholz on Wednesday gave his backing to Zelensky’s calls for a truce in the sky and at sea as a first step towards ending the fighting.”The Chancellor welcomed the Ukrainian president’s willingness to start negotiations as soon as possible. Both agreed on the importance of the American president’s leadership,” Scholz’s office said in a statement.Macron is mulling a joint visit to Washington alongside Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to present a united European front to Trump, the French government said Wednesday.Macron, in a televised address, said European troops could be deployed to Ukraine once a peace treaty is signed. “They won’t go to fight today, they won’t go to fight on the front line, but they would be there once a peace deal is signed, to guarantee it is fully respected,” he said.Macron added that chiefs of staff of European militaries would meet in Paris next week to discuss how to support Ukraine after a peace deal.Trump is pushing for Europe to do more for Ukraine’s defence.CIA director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday the United States had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the dramatic breakdown in relations between Kyiv and the White House.The Ukrainian presidency declined to comment.On the battlefield, Russia’s forces said they had captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.The gains come as AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data showed Moscow’s advance had slowed in February after a series of accelerating territorial gains throughout the winter.burs/gv/rmb

For decades, Mexico’s industrial borderlands boomed thanks to growing trade with the world’s largest economy next door. Today, US tariffs cast a long shadow over a region home to thousands of factories employing armies of workers.Lower labor costs, tax incentives and a North American free trade pact dating back more than 30 years have long lured companies south of the US border.But President Donald Trump’s 25-percent duties on Mexican goods have heaped doubt on the future of the trade agreement, which was renegotiated during his 2017-2021 first term.Manufacturers of goods ranging from medical supplies to semiconductors and other electronic components will be hit by the tariffs, said Jose Luis Contreras, president of the Mesa de Otay Industrial Association in Tijuana, just south of California.Some products like car parts cross the Mexican-US border several times during production.In the Tijuana region, whose industrial parks are home to around 400 companies, a million cargo border crossings are made each year, according to official figures.Following Trump’s imposition of tariffs, Mexico’s “domestic market must be reoriented,” Contreras told AFP in an interview.He said that could mean replicating the production chains of the USMCA free trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada in the Latin American nation, home to 130 million people.It also requires offering tax incentives and seeking new markets, he added.”Action must be taken quickly” given the high stakes, notably 80,000 factory jobs just along the stretch of the border near Tijuana, said Contreras, a metalworking businessman.The tariffs have dealt a heavy blow to Mexico’s hopes of attracting US-owned factories from Asia to its industrial north, a trend known as “nearshoring.”President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Wednesday that Mexico would seek other trading partners besides the United States if needed.She has vowed to respond to Trump’s tariffs with retaliatory duties, calling on supporters to mass in Mexico City’s main square on Sunday to hear details.Sheinbaum has previously hailed the USMCA as “one of the best trade agreements in history” and “the only way we can compete with Asian countries, particularly China.”She has proposed replacing Chinese imports with domestically produced goods — an apparent bid to ease Washington’s concerns that Chinese companies want to use Mexico as a backdoor into the United States.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that Mexico had also proposed matching Washington’s tariff hikes on China.- ‘Unfair trade practices’ -In Mexico’s northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, business leaders who favor maintaining close ties with Washington pointed the finger at China as the trade tension culprit.”The common problem that we have in the United States and Mexico is the position of China,” said Maximo Vedoya, president of CAINTRA, an organization that represents several thousand companies.”China is the one that disrupts all world trade,” he told reporters Tuesday, accusing the Asian giant of “unfair trade practices.”The answer was not US-Mexico trade barriers but “strengthening the North American region” to make it more competitive, added Vedoya, chief executive of a steel products maker.The United States is Mexico’s top trading partner, buying more than 80 percent of its exports.Analysts have warned the US duties could push Mexico’s economy, the second largest in Latin America, into recession.Sheinbaum has accused Trump of violating the USMCA, which replaced the previous NAFTA accord in 2020 and is due for review next year.”Are we to blame for companies deciding to come to Mexico to export to the United States? No, it’s the result of a good relationship since President Trump’s first term and the trade agreement that came before,” she said.Contreras doubts the United States can quickly replace the labor and skills developed in Mexico during decades of trade.”We may be less competitive, but in the end we will still be competitive,” he said.