Mexico’s chief trade negotiator, Jesús Seade, had just started talking with Utah news reporters Friday when he apologized, and said he had to break it off to deal with urgent matters.
He was finalizing a bargain for President Donald Trump to lift tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Mexico and Canada. As Seade walked away, he was heard arranging for a phone call to Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to seal the deal.
Seade later told The Salt Lake Tribune that finally lifting these tariffs on industrial metals should clear most obstacles to ratifying a new trade agreement between the three countries.