U.S. President Donald Trump has paused tariffs on Canadian imports again.

On Thursday, he delayed imposing 25% tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico until April 2, marking another shift in trade policy that has left investors and allies uncertain about future actions.

But the latest reprieve will not make a difference to Canadian commercial real estate investment as investors hold off on capital deployments, says JLL’s head of research for Canada.

“I think the damage is done, because there’s uncertainty,” said Scott Figler in an interview. “As soon as there is uncertainty, people are more reluctant to make decisions.”

Trump’s latest shift on tariffs follows a phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and discussions with Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump framed the move as a temporary exemption for goods covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

As a result of Thursday’s move, Canada temporarily backed away from the second phase of its retaliatory tariffs after invoking $30 billion in levies earlier this week.

“The United States has agreed to suspend tariffs on CUSMA-compliant exports from Canada until April 2nd,” Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a post on X. “As a result, Canada will not proceed with the second wave of tariffs on $125B of U.S. products until April 2nd, while we continue to work for the removal of all tariffs,”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had predicted the U.S delay earlier Thursday.

“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 it will move just to the reciprocal-[tariff conversation,” he told CNBC.

Trudeau, speaking to reporters, said the corresponds with Ottawa’s recent talks with the U.S. government.

“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 a Canadian response and look at the details of it,” he said. “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.”

The fentanyl-related aspects of the tariffs remain a contentious issue. While Trump claims the levies are meant to address drug smuggling into the U.S., Canada disputes allegations that it is a significant source of fentanyl trafficking.

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