MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday she spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday and that the two agreed to extend a looming trade deadline for "a few more weeks" to discuss pending issues with Washington.
The U.S. agreed in July to pause for 90 days an increase in tariffs on some Mexican goods to 30% - from 25% - as the two countries continued talks aimed at reaching a new trade deal. That pause was set to end this week.
"I was interested in making sure
that November 1 didn't arrive without us having communicated and that we were in agreement that our teams were still working," Sheinbaum said in her regular morning press conference, adding they were aiming to resolve 54 outstanding trade barriers.
"We're practically closing this issue," she said.
Mexico's peso strengthened 0.29% to 18.38 per dollar following Sheinbaum's comments.
Mexico has been largely spared the brunt of Trump administration tariffs thanks to the USMCA free trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada that is up for review next year.
Earlier in October, Sheinbaum said she was confident Mexico would reach a favorable agreement with the U.S. on trade and that she was planning to unveil new advances in projects developing electric vehicles, semiconductors, satellites, drones and an artificial intelligence lab.
"We continue working and there is no situation in the near future where there could be any special tariff on November 1st," Sheinbaum said.
Trump said last week he was ending trade talks with Canada, with the White House citing frustration with how negotiations had been progressing.
When asked how Mexico would react and whether Mexico could negotiate separately with Canada, Sheinbaum said last week, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."
(Reporting by Natalia Siniawski and Raul Cortes; additional reporting by Noe Torres; writing by Cassandra Garrison; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Nia Williams)
