Mexico City — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she was confident a tariff war with the United States could be avoided.
But her statement the day after her phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump did not specify who suggested what.
“There will be no potential tariff war,” Sheinbaum said flatly when asked about the issue at his daily morning news briefing.
On Wednesday, Trump wrote that Sheinbaum had agreed to stop illegal immigration into the United States across the border. “Migrants and caravans are cared for before they reach the border,” she wrote on her social media account the same day.
However, it is still unclear whether it is a promise, a pledge, or simply a statement of reality. In recent years, migrants who do not have permission to cross Mexico have been walking or hitchhiking north toward the U.S. border in large numbers, grouped together in caravans for safety.
In fact, with the exception of the first caravans in 2018 and 2019 that provided buses to travel north, no caravan has ever reached the border on foot or hitchhiked in a cohesive way.
For years, migrant caravans have often been blocked, harassed or hitchhiked by Mexican police and immigration agents. They were also frequently arrested or returned to areas near the Guatemalan border. Therefore, Sheinbaum’s comments appear to reflect a reality that has been true for some time.
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday he hoped Trump would reconsider plans to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which he said could ‘ruin’ relations with close allies.
“I hope he reconsiders. I think that’s counterproductive,” he told reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
President Trump previously threatened to impose a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada until Mexico and Canada satisfactorily halt illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs, including fentanyl, into the United States. He also said an additional 10% tariff would be imposed on Chinese imports until China cracks down on its production of the substance used to make fentanyl.
Despite Sheinbaum’s confidence (Sheinbaum described his phone call with Trump as “excellent”), many Mexicans worry that U.S. tariffs could impact a wide range of Mexican flagship products and threaten the entire regional economy.
No other crop in western Mexico provides income to as many small growers as avocados, and Mexico is a major supplier of the fruit to the U.S. market. But avocado growers, harvesters and packers worry that American consumers, faced with 25 percent higher prices, may just skip guacamole.
And earlier this week, Secretary Sheinbaum said Mexico was preparing a list of retaliatory tariffs if President Trump goes ahead with his plans for import tariffs.
If Mexico, Canada and China were to face additional tariffs proposed by President Trump on all goods imported into the United States, this could amount to approximately $266 billion in tax collections, without assuming trade disruptions or retaliatory actions by other countries. This is an unrealistic number. .
The costs of such a tax would likely be borne by American families, importers, and domestic and foreign businesses in the form of higher prices or lower profits.
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