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Saudi Economy Minister: Stability in Middle East Is Imperative for Global Growth

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim speaks at Davos. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim speaks at Davos. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Economy Minister: Stability in Middle East Is Imperative for Global Growth

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim speaks at Davos. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim speaks at Davos. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Alibrahim stressed on Monday that the Kingdom is looking forward to working with the second Trump administration, as Riyadh has worked with previous ones.

“We look forward to working with the second Trump administration... to address and counter some of the global challenges we’re facing, including the tepid economic growth that we are witnessing as a global community today,” he said from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

The minister then noted that any step towards peace in the Middle East is a positive one, with stability in the region “imperative” for global growth.

In an interview with Bloomberg television, Alibrahim said the Kingdom and the US have long-standing strong relations that have spanned eight decades. “It has been strong regardless of which administration was in office,” he underscored.

“We are here today to work together for global prosperity,” he said, adding that, “any step towards peace is a positive progress step. We in the Kingdom have always called for laying a clear and universal path towards more peace, more stability.”

Also, Alibrahim said the Kingdom is always focusing on fostering more global dialogue.

“We’ve been invited to the BRICS, similar to how we’ve been invited to many other multilateral platforms in the past historically,” he said. “We assess many different aspects of it before a decision is made and right now, we are in the middle of that.”

He added that Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia’s program to a long-term restructure of the economy. “Vision 2030 is on track and moving with a lot of momentum,” the minister stressed.

The Kingdom’s focus-areas is building more human capital potential and having human-led growth, he noted.

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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd."

Earlier on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on hefty tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada that has been granted to automotive products is likely to be extended to all products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lutnick told CNBC he expected Trump to announce that extension on Thursday, a day after exempting automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he slapped on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.

Trump "is going to decide this today," Lutnick said, adding "it's likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services."

"So if you think about it this way, if you lived under Donald Trump's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, you will get a reprieve from these tariffs now. If you chose to go outside of that, you did so at your own risk, and today is when that reckoning comes," he said.

Nonetheless, Trump's social media post made no mention of a reprieve for Canada, the other party to the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Lutnick said his "off the cuff" estimate was that more than 50% of the goods imported from the two US neighbors - also its largest two trading partners - were compliant with the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick's comments "promising" in remarks to reporters in Canada.

"That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials, but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response and look at the details of it," Trudeau said. "But it is a promising sign. But I will highlight that it means that the tariffs remain in place, and therefore our response will remain in place."

Lutnick emphasized that the reprieve would only last until April 2, when he said the administration plans to move ahead with reciprocal tariffs under which the US will impose levies that match those imposed by trading partners.

In the meantime, he said, the current hiatus is about getting fentanyl deaths down, which is the initial justification Trump used for the tariffs on Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20%.

"On April 2, we're going to move with the reciprocal tariffs, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we'll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation," Lutnick said. "But if they haven't, this will stay on."

Indeed, Trudeau is expecting the US and Canada to remain in a trade war.

"I can confirm that we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future," he told reporters in Ottawa.