During his campaign, President Donald Trump promised to levy substantial tariffs against China and Mexico on day 1 of his presidency.
While Mr. Trump signed a substantial number of executive orders on his first day as president, he has yet to follow through on controversial tariff promises.
Mr. Trump had proposed 25% tariffs on both China and Mexico to pressure them to keep migrants and drugs out of the U.S., according to a Jan. 22 NBC News report.
According to Mr. Trump's advisers, he is not laying off of tariff promises altogether, but rather is carving out time to negotiate with both countries and study the issue with economic advisors.
On Jan. 20, Mr. Trump told reporters, “I think we’ll do it Feb. 1," when asked about raised tariffs. He reiterated the timeline again on Jan. 21, according to the report. He also said China could be subject to a 10% tariff starting Feb. 1.
The fine print of a memorandum about trade policy Mr. Trump issued Jan. 20 gave his aides a deadline of April 1 to send him a report assessing the migration and fentanyl flows from Mexico, Canada and China.
"President Trump will move on his America First trade agenda forward swiftly based on a set of foundational studies. These actions will be done ‘in Trump time,’ which is to say as quickly as possible on behalf of our economic and national security," Peter Navarro, Mr. Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, told NBC.