Stephen Jacobi: International Business Forum Executive Director on Trump’s re-pausing of Mexico and Canadian tariffs

U.S President Donald Trump has paused tariffs on Mexico and Canada, again, after first doing so one month ago.  

The executive actions mean products covered under the USMCA treaty won’t be subject to a tariff until April 2nd.

What is the President’s game plan? 

Executive Director of the International Business Forum Stephen Jacobi talks to Ryan Bridge.

LISTEN ABOVE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now U S President Donald Trump has today re paused
You have to stay with me for this introduction because
it's actually quite hard to follow, and that's not the
fault of the person who wrote it. It is the
fault of the president. US President Donald Trump has today
re paused some of the tariffs on Mexico, Mexico and
Canada that he paused a month ago but unpaused earlier
this week. Now, any products covered under the free trade Deal,

(00:24):
the new NAFTA treaty, they won't be subject to a
tariff until April the second. So this includes about half
of what the Mexicans export to the United States and
about a quarter for the Canadians. If you're confused, well
a lot of people are. Hopefully Stephen Jacobe from the
International Business Forum can help us make sense of it all.
He's with me now, Hi, Stephen.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
How are you doing good?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Thank you? Good to have you on the show. Then,
so what happens on April second? Do you think if
you had a crystal ball?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, April second is the day that the president is
meant to be taking decisions on a raft of advice
that he can mission from US trade agencies. On his
first day in office, and his thirst day in office,
he didn't do anything about tariff's other than to commission
this advice. It's due on the first of April. On
the second of April, making those decisions and we will

(01:13):
then see, I think, what he means to do about
tariffs across the board. I mean, we've seen these things
in relation to Canada and Mexico and China and steel
now aluminium, and he's talked about doing a whole of
other things. The situation with him is very very unclear.
Come April second, I think we might see a little

(01:34):
more about what the game plan is.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Why do you think he has capitulated? I mean, why
is he pulled back on some of these. From where
I'm sitting, he's looking at the markets. The markets aren't
liking it, and so he pushes pause.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, I think there's that, and I think he's getting
a lot of advice from commentary from US business interests.
When we know that big car manufacturers went to see
him the other day and said, look, if you do this,
you're going to wreck the motor vehicle industry in North America,
including for US. So maybe it's not a good idea.
And you know these things aren't more complicated than they appear.

(02:08):
The legislation he used to justify those tariffs on Canada
and Mexico was not trade legislation, was about national emergencies,
and it's not very well suited to doing you know,
I suppose what you call protectionism. But he's got a
lot of other trade legislation you can use. And that's
the advice he's going to get on the second of April.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
But that's more difficult to do is, And I mean
that's why he's gone with these emergency ones. And that's
why he's talking about the likes of fentanyl, you know,
coming in from China, because that justifies it under this
emergency legislation, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, But yeah, that's right. I mean it's a justification,
but of course it has unforeseen consequences, such as the
chaos and markets and in relation to manufacturing in North America.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Is this because Biden kept some of Trump's tariffs on
and there was some on you know, still on aluminium
that stayed, and there was some on China that stayed
as well. Do you think that there's obviously a base
of Republican base who does like taris and who isn'to protectionism?
Are we entering a new era even once Trump leaves
office in four years, are we is the world changing?

(03:19):
Are we turning away from free trade?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Well? Well, I think it is fair to say that
protectionism and right is rising, and not just in the
United States but around the world. We've seen that, you know,
in the last you know, even as we've been doing
more trade agreements and trying to things up, free things up,
more restrictions have come into play. So we're used to that,
but I guess these moves in the United States take

(03:44):
her to a whole new level. And I mean it's
part of what Trump campaigned on. It's part of what
he and his administration it pletably thinks in the Americans.
It's interests, and you know, it's not necessarily the view
of everybody in the United States and around the world,
but it has impacts, and the real world impacts can't

(04:05):
be ignored. And as time goes by, we are going
to see those impacts. I mean, these new tariff on
steel now the minium are already causing a lot of
headaches for US manufacturing and that'll be compounded as other
sectors get added on.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
The power of the United States is in decline, its
influences in decline. Is this the strategy that arrests that slide.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
I don't know if it rests it or it continues,
it makes it worse, accelerates that it makes it worse.
I mean, the United States is basically saying it wants
to take itself out of the order that has been
created around international trade. And you know it's at liberty
to do that and to live with the consequences. It's
an experiment that the American people are going to see,

(04:52):
you know, how that transition pans out for them. Meanwhile,
the rest of the world is also prone to these
sorts of things, but not at the same level, and
they're still in the rest of them are quite a
bit of trade and business that can be done. We
shouldn't lose sight of that. But the United States is
a big player, no doubt about it, and a key
one for New.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Zealand absolutely number one for our METex sports too. Steven,
thank you for that. Stephen Jacobe, executive director of International
Business Forum with US Tonight for more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks. It'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio