Mexican President Might Avoid Trump's 'Day One' Tariffs

In late November, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump sent shockwaves through global trade by threatening 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, effectively ripping up a regional trade agreement if the two countries didn't do more to curb migration and the flow of drugs.
It was a big test for Mexico's new President, Claudia Sheinbaum, the country's first female leader who had taken office just eight weeks earlier. Analysts thought the scientist-turned-politician might be too rigid and reserved to navigate the volatile U.S. leader with the relative aplomb of her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
As Trump prepares to take office, Sheinbaum has publicly sparred with the incoming U.S. president but has also shown concrete results that could help show that Mexico is serious about cooperating on migration and security, as well as China. It is hard to know if that will be enough or if the threat of tariffs on Trump's first day in power is wholly realistic, but experts and former diplomats say Sheinbaum has made a solid start.
"It's a very pragmatic and proactive approach by Sheinbaum and her team," said Gema Kloppe-Santamaria, a global fellow of the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. Trump has repeatedly accused the Mexican government of not doing enough to stop migrants and drugs from entering the U.S. and has threatened sweeping tariffs to force more action. He has also railed against Chinese plants setting up shop in Mexico.
But since taking office, Sheinbaum has intensified an already historic crackdown against migrants traveling toward the U.S. border by detaining an unprecedented 475,000 migrants between October and December and has left open the possibility that Mexico might be willing to accept non-Mexicans deported from the United States.
Her government has also seized a record 1,100 kilograms of illicit fentanyl and unveiled new tariffs against some Asian goods and confiscated counterfeit Chinese products in several Mexican cities.

(Source: Reuters)