Mexico implements retaliatory tariffs on US agricultural products

Mexico moved forward Thursday with its second round of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, according to a Politico report.

Most of the latest tariffs will be applied to U.S. agricultural products, including apples, cranberries, cheeses, potatoes, pork and whiskey. The products will be hit with a tariff of between 15 and 25 percent, Politico reported.

Those penalties will complete the roughly $3 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs Mexico implemented in response to steel and aluminum duties the Trump administration announced earlier this year.

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While the Trump administration initially exempted Mexico, Canada, the European Union and other allies from steel and aluminum tariffs, it moved forward with implementing them citing national security reasons.

Mexico joins Canada, the European Union and China among nations that have prepared retaliatory measures in response to President Trump’s trade policies.

Despite international and domestic pushback on the tariffs, Trump has refused to back down, prompting growing concerns over of a looming global trade war.

In addition to the tariff dispute, Trump is attempting to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

Trump said in an interview aired Sunday on Fox News that he’d wait to negotiate NAFTA until “after the election,” though it’s unclear if he was referring to the U.S. midterm elections in November, or the Mexican elections that took place on Sunday.

“I want to wait until after the election. You’re going to have an election. It’s going to be very interesting,” Trump said.

The president has also heightened tensions with Mexico with repeated claims that the country will pay for his border wall, and racially charged rhetoric when discussing immigration.

Each of those factors raises the stakes for Mexico’s president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who secured a victory on Sunday. López Obrador, a left-wing populist, has vowed to take a tougher stance against the U.S. president.

Trump and López Obrador discussed trade and immigration during a half-hour phone call on Monday. Both men expressed optimism about their future relationship.