Mexico suggests it would impose its own tariffs to retaliate against any Trump tariffs
President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Tuesday that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican goods if the country doesn鈥檛 stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.
Sheinbaum said she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, but said drugs were a U.S. problem.
鈥淥ne tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,鈥� Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border.
She said Tuesday that Mexico had done a lot to stem the flow of migrants, noting 鈥渃aravans of migrants no longer reach the border.鈥� She also said Mexico had worked to stem the flow of drugs, like the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, even though 鈥渋t is a problem of public health and consumption in your country鈥檚 society.鈥�
Sheinbaum鈥檚 bristly response suggests that Trump faces a much different Mexican president than he did in his first term.
Back in late 2018, former President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador was a charismatic, old-school politician who developed a chummy relationship with Trump. The two were eventually able to strike a deal in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border 鈥� and received other countries鈥� deported migrants 鈥� and Trump backed down on the threats.
But Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, is a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appears less willing to pacify or mollify Trump.
However, it's not clear how serious Trump鈥檚 threat is. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement forbids just imposing tariffs on other member countries. And it鈥檚 not clear whether the economy could even tolerate sudden levies on imports: Auto plants on both sides of the border rely on each other for parts and components; some production lines could screech to a halt.
鈥淚t is unacceptable and would cause inflation and job losses in Mexico and the United States,鈥� Sheinbaum said.