Photo: Unsplash

By KELIN DILLON

U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s sweeping 25 percent tariffs on Mexican goods officially went into effect today, Tuesday, March 4. 

The news comes just days after the federal executive said he would delay the sanctions until April.

When asked if Mexico would have any opportunity to reach an agreement before the tariffs began at midnight, Trump said there was “no room” for negotiation.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (CSP) previously managed to delay the economic tariffs for one month from February to March by deploying 10,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, as agreed upon with Trump.

Trump also noted that reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2 as planned. 

These reciprocals include tariffs on agricultural products, which are expected to impact Mexico’s industrial farming sector heavily.

“The reciprocal tariffs start on April 2,” said the U.S. federal executive. “I wanted to do it on the first, but I didn’t, I didn’t because it’s a lot of money for one day, but we’re going to start on April 2.”

For her part, Sheinbaum took to social media to announce that Mexico will be enacting “Plan B” against the U.S. sanctions, which “includes tariff and non-tariff measures in defense of Mexico’s interests,” and condemned the Trump administration’s allegations that the Mexican federal government is collaborating with cartels.

“We categorically reject the slander that the White House is making against the Mexican government of having alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any interference in our territory,”  said Sheinbaum on Monday, March 3.

“It is not by imposing tariffs that problems are resolved, but by talking and dialoguing as we did in recent weeks with the U.S. State Department to address the phenomenon of migration; in our case, with respect for human rights,” continued CSP.