Leftist Mexican President Says She’ll Retaliate Against U.S. Tariffs, Following Canada And China

On Tuesday, as the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on Mexican, Canadian, and Chinese imports took effect, leftist Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Mexico would retaliate with tariffs on U.S. exports, following the lead of Canada and China.

Sheinbaum said she would delineate which products Mexico would target, adding that the U.S. had no reason for imposing tariffs on its largest trading partners.

“There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations,” she said. “It’s inconceivable that they don’t think about the damage this is going to cause to United States citizens and businesses with the increase in prices for things produced in our country. Also the damage it will cause by stopping job creation in both countries. No one wins with this decision.”

Trump’s tariffs impose a 25% tax on Mexican and Canadian imports.

On Monday, the White House issued a fact sheet regarding the tariffs in which it stated that the Mexican government had cooperated with the vicious drug cartels of Mexico. The fact sheet declared:

Mexican drug trafficking organizations, the world’s leading fentanyl traffickers, operate unhindered due to an intolerable relationship with the government of Mexico. The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of dangerous narcotics, which collectively have led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims. 

Cartel violence, including armed drones and roadside IEDs, are coming in closer and closer proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border as cartels are more actively targeting one another as well as Mexican military and law enforcement personnel.

This alliance with the Mexican government endangers the national security of the United States, and we must eradicate the influence of these dangerous cartels.

The fact sheet also noted, “There is also a growing presence of Mexican cartels operating fentanyl and nitazene synthesis labs in Canada. … Both nations’ failure to arrest traffickers, seize drugs, or coordinate with U.S. law enforcement constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to America’s security—demanding IEEPA action to force accountability and protect American lives.”

Sheinbaum called the fact sheet “offensive, defamatory and without support,” adding, “We collaborate to avoid illegal drug trafficking to the United States, but as we have said on multiple occasions, that country’s government must take responsibility too for the crisis of opioid consumption that has caused so many deaths in the United States.”