Comments from Kevin Hassett spotlight optimism round Canada and Mexico

White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett was on CNBC today and said:

“There should be absolutely clarity. April 2nd you’re going to see the reciprocal tariffs. Between now and then, we’ve been in a negotiation with flexibility with Mexico and Canada. We’ve got the border under control and we’re making a huge amount of progress on fentanyl. Those have both been very positive developments that were related to the tariff policy. But absolutely, between now and April 2nd , there will be some uncertainty but as April comes along, markets will see that the reciprocal trade policy makes a great deal of sense and for that a lot of countries, they play by the rules and they’re not going to be very upset at all.”

This sounds positive to me but the big caveat could be if Trump’s team declares that VAT taxes are tariffs, which is a ridiculous idea that they have floated.

In terms of that question, here is what I had to say on BNNBloomberg Thursday:

USD/CAD is down 39 pips today and at the lowest in a week.