The Donald Trump administration announced on Wednesday that Canada and Mexico will be exempt from the baseline 10 per cent tariff rate, as well as reciprocal levies for specific countries, for now.
The 10 per cent tariff will only take effect when the original 25 per cent duties Trump imposed on Canadian and Mexican imports are either terminated or suspended.
The 25 per cent tariff was based on allegations that the neighbouring countries were failing to stem the flow of drugs and crime into the U.S.
Markets plunged in after-hours trading, as Trump held up a poster listing various tariff levels for U.S. trading partners.
The ETF (exchange-traded fund) tracking the broad-based S&P 500 dropped by more than 2.3 per cent, while the ETF tracking the Nasdaq 100 plunged more than 3.1 per cent in volatile trading.
The Dow ETF also slid more than 420 points.
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