Trump tariffs on Mexico: the good, the bad, the unknown [Video]

At first glance, Mexico got off lightly from Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs blitz.

The US president has repeatedly threatened the United States’ top trading partner with punishing tariffs over illegal migration and drug smuggling.

So it was a surprise when he left Mexico off the list of nations on which he imposed levies ranging from 10 to 50 percent.

The relief in Mexico, which has a free-trade deal with the United States and Canada, was tempered by concern over the 25-percent levies Trump slapped on foreign-made imported vehicles.

That includes some of the three million vehicles the Latin American country sends north across the border each year.

AFP looks at how Mexico, whose President Claudia Sheinbaum has been walking a diplomatic tightrope with Trump, fared generally:

– The good –

Mexico avoided the 10-percent blanket tariffs imposed by Trump on several Latin American countries, including ones with staunchly pro-Trump governments such as Argentina …