U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday delayed a new 25% tariff on vehicle imports from Mexico and Canada for a month, amid fears that a trade war between the neighboring countries could hurt the "Big 3" U.S. automakers.

The U.S. leader spoke with top officials at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis before announcing the tariff delay, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. She said Trump urged the automakers to move their Mexican and Canadian production to the United States to avoid the tariffs altogether.

But Trump's stiff new levies on the U.S.' two biggest trading partners remain in place for other products, although Leavitt said the president is open to hearing the case for other possible exemptions.

Continuing tariffs threaten jobs in Canada, says official

Trump announced the vehicle tariff delay in a statement after speaking earlier in the day with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, according to The Associated Press, is not willing to lift Canada's retaliatory tariffs if Trump leaves any tariffs on Canada.

"Both countries will continue to be in contact today," Trudeau's office said.

Doug Ford, the Ontario provincial premier, said earlier that if the U.S. tariff on Canadian vehicle exports to the U.S. remained in place, production at Canadian auto plants would start to shut down in about 10 days.

"People are going to lose their jobs," he said.

Trump imposed the duties on Mexico and Canada at midnight Monday, along with doubling tariffs on Chinese imported goods, to 20%. His action caused stock markets to plunge and threatened to boost the price of U.S. consumer goods and products that businesses need to operate.

Mexico, Canada and China all said Tuesday they would retaliate against Trump's tariffs by increasing their own against U.S. products sent to their countries.

Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that Trudeau called him Wednesday morning to ask what could be done about the new U.S. tax.

"I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped," the president wrote. "He said that it's gotten better, but I said, 'That's not good enough.' The call ended in a 'somewhat' friendly manner!"

Tariffs not eliminated

Earlier in the week, Trudeau said Canada has surged personnel and equipment to the border to stop the flow of fentanyl to the United States, as Trump had demanded as a possible path to averting the new tariff on Canadian imports.

"Because of this work — in partnership with the United States — fentanyl seizures from Canada have dropped 97% between December 2024 and January 2025 to a near-zero low of 0.03 pounds seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection," Trudeau said.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg Television that Trump's new tariffs will not be fully eliminated.

"There are going to be tariffs, let's be clear," Lutnick said. "But what [Trump is] thinking about is which sections of the market that can maybe — maybe — he'll consider giving them relief until we get to, of course, April 2," when Trump has said he will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world that tax imports from the U.S.

The Canadian government said that nothing less than abandoning the new U.S. tariffs was acceptable.

"We're not interested in meeting in the middle and having some reduced tariff. Canada wants the tariffs removed," Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In a speech Tuesday night to the U.S. Congress, Trump acknowledged the tariff turmoil, saying, "Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. There will be a little disturbance, but we're OK with that. It won't be much."

Trump has justified the new tariffs as a way to push Mexico and Canada to curb the flow of migrants and illicit drugs, especially the deadly opioid fentanyl, into the United States. Both countries said they had made major strides in meeting Trump's demands on migration and drug trafficking, but he ultimately imposed the same 25% duties he first announced in early February.

"It may be a little bit of an adjustment period," he said, claiming that farmers would benefit from reciprocal tariffs on countries that have tariffs on U.S. exports. "You have to bear with me again, and this will be even better."

Trudeau was incensed on Tuesday at Trump's tariff on Canadian exports, announcing he would retaliate with his own on more than $100 billion worth of American goods over the course of 21 days.

"Today, the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense," Trudeau said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would announce her country's counter-tariff increase against U.S. goods on Sunday.

China placed tariffs of up to 15% on a wide array of U.S. farm exports. It also expanded the number of U.S. companies subject to export controls and other restrictions by about two dozen.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.