On Saturday, President Trump ordered 25 percent of tariffs on all Mexican exports to the United States and a similar levy on all Canadian goods, except 10 percent of tariffs on Canadian energy. His move sent shock waves through both countries, whose leaders warned that the tariffs would hurt all three countries and disrupt their deeply intertwined economy.
On the first day in power, Mr. Trump vowed to impose criminal tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports on February 1, to force two countries to better secure their borders against the flow of unproven migrants and drugs.
The tariffs target the nearest neighbors and key trade partners of the United States. Mexico has become the largest trade partner of the United States last yearExports of various goods, including cars and avocados, while Canada is the largest foreign supplier of raw oil to the United States.
Mexican officials have criticized the tariffs, claiming that they will not only harm the Mexico farm, but will also harm US companies with production facilities in Mexico, including General Motors and Ford. US consumers are also likely to see higher fruits, vegetables and other products.
President Claudia Sheinbaum from Mexico said on Friday that the country was “ready for any scenario”. She suggested that Mexico could take revenge on her own tariffs.
Here’s what to know about tariffs:
Why does Trump impose tariffs Mexico?
Mr. Trump set up Mexico and the US southern border at the center of his presidential campaign, opposing the record level of unfathomable immigrants who entered the United States, as well as the movement of the fental in the country. (Border crossings are currently at a significantly lower than record level 2023)
Mr Trump accused Mexico of allowing a “massive invasion of migration” to the United States, claiming that it brought a “crime and drug”, demolished salaries and flooded school systems.
This is not the first time Mr. Trump has used tariffs as a strategy to achieve the goals of politics that include immigration.
During his first term, he threatened to impose tax on Mexican products to put pressure on the country’s president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, migration shooting.
As a result, Mexico distributed officials of the National Guard across the country to take over illegal immigration and agree to expand the program that enabled migrants seeking asylum in the United States to stay in Mexico while their legal cases started.
What did Mexico do to confront the flow of immigrants across the US border?
Mexico has significantly increased the implementation of immigration in recent years, especially during the Biden administration. He added hundreds of immigration checkpoints across the country, including once selected parts of the border, conducted inspections on the routes of commercial buses and increased dramatically drastically detention.
In order to distract people to reach border cities like Tijuana, top -notch entrances to migrants near San Diego, Mexican authorities have seen in hotels and safe houses, increased security at official crossings and set new border checkpoints where migrants went through the gap in the gap in the gap wall.
Mexico also moved migrants from the border, using hired flights and buses to Drop a large number People in southern cities like Villahermos. The strategy contributed to the fall in the concern of people trying to cross along the southern border early last year.
The government also introduced bureaucratic obstacles for migrants trying to reach the United States. At one point, he stopped publishing documents that enabled migrants and refugees to stay in Mexico.
Karoline Leavitt, the print secretary of the White House, alluded to these actions last week when she said that Trump’s administration saw “Historical level of cooperation from Mexico ”on border security.
What did Mexico do to control the Fentanil trade?
Mrs. Sheinbaum took a far stricter line than her predecessor in breaking criminal groups involved in the Fentanil trade.
Mr. López Obrador is a priority priority in resolving social and economic causes of drug crime due to executive actions. But during the first four months of Mrs. Sheinbaum, Mexican security forces carried out great attacks of fental and enhanced operations to find and destroy the secrets of the Fentanil Laboratory. Security forces have also targets key members From the Cartel of Sinalo, a powerful criminal organization largely responsible for Fentanil that overflowed the southern border.
In December, the Mexican security forces seized more than a ton of fentanil, which is equivalent to more than 20 million doses of fentanial pills, described in what Msinbaum described as “the biggest mass attack of fental tablets ever made.”
Mexico’s Security Minister, Omar García Harfuch, announced last week that, since Mrs. Sheinbaum, on October 1, he assumed his duty to duty to duty to duty to duty to duty to duty, including murder. Mexican authorities also seized 90 tonnes of drugs, including more than 1.3 tons of fentanila, and destroyed more than 139 laboratories, said Mr. Garcia Harfuch.
Some of the most important efforts to suppress furious violence focused on the state of Sinalo, where the rival fractures of the Sinalo cartel turned the state of the UA War zone After Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, a top cartel leader, was lured on a plane under false excuses and sent to the United States, where he was under charges.
Although there is no evidence that these activities have made a significant recess in the production capabilities of Sinalo Cartel, analysts say that it has sent a clear message about Mexico’s commitment to manage in the demands of Mr. Trump.
“There are only thousands of concealed fental cuisine in Sinaloi, and the drug is so immensely profitable that the cartel will not only hand it over to the authorities,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexican security analyst.
“But it was important to show that Mexico works harder and faster and well in this promise that it will give results,” he added.
Mexico has also recently adopted constitutional reforms to forbid production, distribution and sale of chemical precursors needed to produce the fantanila. He also increased the laws over the criminal offenses related to Fentanil.
What did Mexico say to Mr. Trump about his efforts?
After the victory of Mr. Trump, Mrs. Sheinbaum said he should consider what Mexico did to suppress the flow of fental and illegal immigration.
In a letter to Mr. Trump, Mrs. Sheinbaum said that a “comprehensive” migration policy for caring for migrants coming to Mexico from different countries and wanting to reach the United States led to the fall of 75 percent in meetings along the United States-Mexico borders from December 2023. until November 2024.
Half of the migrants who arrived in the United States entered the legal appointment for asylum seeking as the United States introduced an application that allowed migrants to execute these meetings, she added. (Trump’s administration excluded a program of entry based on the app.)
“For these reasons, migrant caravans no longer arrive on the border,” she said.
Mrs. Sheinbaum, in the same letter, repeated Mexico “willingness to prevent the epidemic of the fental” to continue taking a tribute in the United States and emphasized the implementation actions that resulted in the attack of tons of synthetic drugs.
