Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum hinted at a tit-for-tat retaliation to President-elect Donald Trump‘s proposed 25 per cent import duties. Sheinbaum said the US tariff would be responded to with a Mexican tariff. “One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said.
Trump said Monday that his first action as the president would be a 25 per cent tax on all imports from Mexico and Canada in an effort to stop the flow of migrants and narcotics into the United States. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page.
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power,” Trump added, “and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
Sheinbaum said this plan would do nothing to halt the flow of migrants or drugs bound for the US border but only cause inflation and job losses in both countries. “What sense is there?” The president said she is willing to engage in talks on the issue but drugs are a US problem, she said.
Mexico did a lot to stem the flow of migrants, the president said adding that Mexico suffers from an influx of weapons smuggled in from the United States.
I had a good call with Donald Trump, says Justin Trudeau
Canada PM Justin Trudeau said he had a good call with Donald Trump last night again. “We talked about how the intense and effective communication between the two countries flows back and forth. We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together. It was a good call. This is something that we can do — laying out the facts, and looking forward in constructive ways. This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on and that’s what we will do. One of the important things is that we will be all pulling together on this,” Trudeau said.
