Tariff negotiations lack clarity, frustrating Mexico and Canada

7/3/2025 6:22

M exican and Canadian officials are increasingly frustrated by

tariff negotiations with the Trump administration, with a lack

of clarity over exactly what the U.S. wants making any

resolution seem impossible, sources from both countries told

Reuters.

After implementing across-the-board 25% tariffs on goods from

Canada and Mexico earlier this week, President Donald Trump on

Thursday announced a one-month reprieve for both countries on

goods compliant under a North American trade pact.



The on-again, off-again tariffs and the high-level

discussions surrounding them have exasperated negotiating teams,

according to three Mexican officials and two Canadian sources

familiar with negotiations.



It's like "dealing with an angry partner and you don’t know

what they're mad about," one Mexican official. "It's not clear

what they want."



The press person for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum

responded to a request for comment by directing Reuters to

Sheinbaum's public comment on Thursday. In a post on X,

Sheinbaum said: "We had an excellent and respectful call," that

respected the "sovereignties" of both countries.



Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office and the

White House both did not immediately respond to requests for

comment.

Trump based the legal justification for the tariffs on combating

fentanyl and illegal immigration, but he and others in his

administration often expand the justification to include trade

deficits and protecting U.S. industries like autos and lumber.



Despite the shared frustration of Mexico and Canada, the two

countries have taken distinct tones in public. Sheinbaum has

stressed her respect for Trump and the close cooperation with

the U.S. Canada has bluntly criticized the chaos.

Trudeau on Thursday, before Trump announced a reprieve, said

Canada will be in a trade war with the United States for "the

foreseeable future." U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

called Trudeau "a numbskull."



Trudeau's foreign minister has been even franker.

"We won't get through this, another psychodrama every 30 days,"

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told business leaders in Toronto

earlier this week.



"The problem we've had is it's not clear what the American

president wants," she added. "I've had conversations with

colleagues in Washington saying, 'Okay, but at the end of the

day, what do you guys want?' And I got the answer, 'We're about

to know.' There's one decision maker in the system. He's the

only one to know."



U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dismissed the idea

that he didn't know what Trump wants as "fake news" and "so

silly" in an interview on Thursday with CNBC.



Trump "calls everybody all the time," Lutnick said. "I speak

to him all the time. You've got to be kidding me. The president

knows exactly what he wants. We know exactly what he wants."



But Canadian and Mexican officials said the lack of clarity

over demands as well as uncertainty over whether Trump

administration officials in bilateral meetings were actually

able to deliver on what they said was making discussions

incredibly challenging.



The scope of negotiations is not clear, they said, with

talks sometimes seeming to be focused on fentanyl and at other

times on migration, while on some occasions the focus seemed to

be trade deficits.



"The U.S. reasons for the tariffs constantly shift,” said

another Mexican official. "If we can't identify the problem, we

can't identify the solution."