US gives Mexico more time to meet demands to avoid tariffs
(NYT) — The United States is giving Mexico more time to make trade policy changes to avoid an increase in tariffs that had been set to go into effect Saturday, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said Monday.
“For the time being, there is no situation that would lead to a special tariff being imposed on Nov. 1,” Sheinbaum said.
In July, President Donald Trump threatened to put 30% tariffs on all goods from Mexico but then gave the country a 90-day reprieve so it could negotiate with the United States. That reprieve was set to expire Saturday. When the two presidents spoke Saturday, Sheinbaum said, they agreed to give Mexico more time to address U.S. demands to lower what it called nontariff barriers to trade.
The White House is asking Mexico to remove what it calls 54 barriers to trade that aren’t tariffs, such as disputes about intellectual property. Sheinbaum said Monday in her daily news conference that she and Trump agreed to give it “a few more weeks” to finalize that pending issue.
Trump has already placed a 25% tariff on Mexican imports that don’t comply with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement. Since he did so, Mexican companies have made changes so their goods comply with the agreement and avoid the tariffs. Mexican officials have said nearly 90% of the country’s exports to the United States now comply and thus are not subject to the levies.
Mexico and the United States are each other’s largest trading partners. Unlike Canada, to which Trump has taken an increasingly bellicose approach, Mexico has been able to forge a collaborative relationship with the Trump administration, in part because Mexico has made major concessions on security and immigration to appease Trump.
Search underway for crew member who went overboard from cruise
(NYT) — A search was underway Monday after a crew member went overboard during a Viking cruise in the Mediterranean that was carrying passengers from Greece to Italy, the cruise company said.
At 11:31 a.m. local time, a member of the crew on the Viking Star “was observed going overboard,” Viking Cruises said in a statement. The ship’s emergency response was activated and a search operation was initiated with the Italian Coast Guard, it said.
The company declined to provide further details about the crew member or the operation to find the person in the water. The Italian coast guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Passengers posted about the search-and-rescue effort on social media pages, describing a widening search area halfway between Greece and Italy and a search from the air.
Two people on board, who requested anonymity because they did not have permission from the ship’s authorities to speak publicly, said in an interview that passengers learned about the episode just before noon, as they enjoyed spa visits, lectures and other indoor activities after a blustery night. An announcement declared a Code Oscar, a maritime emergency signal indicating that someone has gone overboard, and saying that the ship needed to circle back.
Crew members took positions on deck and used binoculars to scan the water as the Coast Guard conducted a search. Concerned passengers, who were told not to disturb the searching crew members, looked at the waves with concern, the people interviewed said.