Mexico has prepared for the worst when President Trump threatened with steep prices on his exports. But as delays, the leaders of Mexico hope that they have found a formula to prevent prices by moving decisively on several fronts to appease Mr. Trump.
By focusing on Mr. Trump’s complaints on illegal migration and drugs, President Claudia Sheinbaum deploys 10,000 soldiers to dissuade migrants from reaching the United States, based on efforts to break migrant caravans and bus migrants to places far from the border.
Ms. Sheinbaum also gives dozens of high-level agents to the United States and accepts information from CIA drone flights to capture others. Break with your predecessor, which wrongly That Mexico has not made fentanyl, it triggers a repression causing record crises of the medication.
At the same time, the leaders of Mexico impose theirs price And restrictions on a wide range of Chinese imports, seeking to persuade Trump that Mexico and its low -cost industrial basis, can be a strategic partner to blunder the economic balance of China.
Trump still promises to impose 25% prices on Tuesday. But Mexico’s financial markets remain calm, reflecting expectations in the country’s commercial establishment that Ms. Sheinbaum can find a means of concluding an agreement.
“The way she was able to manage this crisis was much higher than any other leader,” said Diego Marroquín Bitar, a scholar specializing in North American trade at the Wilson Center, a Washington research group.
Mr. Trump congratulated Ms. Sheinbaum as a “Wonderful woman” After talking with her in February.
Ms. Sheinbaum has mixed her conciliatory public measures to appease Mr. Trump, such as the deployment of troops, with greater cooperation in terms of behind the scenes and a modest dose of hindsight against Mr. Trump on subjects such as the reputation of the Gulf of Mexico.
It is not an easy balancing act for Ms. Sheinbaum, even if she approval rating has climbed 80%. The skepticism of the xenophobic policy of Mr. Trump is deep in both Mexican society and within the political party of Ms. Sheinbaum, which mixes the nationalist and left -wing ideals.
After decades of integration, Mexico relies more on trade with the United States than any other great economy. The prices, even if they are imposed briefly, could bring a blow, warn economists.
Trump also threatens separate 25% tariffs on global imports of steel and aluminum, which would also affect Mexico. And the Trump administration makes “reciprocal” additional prices aimed at compensating for commercial restrictions and corresponding to the import rights billed by other countries.
The uncertainty about the prices already weighs on the economy of Mexico while companies suspend the plans. The central bank cup Its growth projection at 0.6% for this year, against 1.2%.
However, Mr. Trump’s repeated threats and the subsequent withdrawal of these threats have fed the hopes that tensions could facilitate. He first swore to impose the prices during his first day in power, but then returned twice.
Mexican negotiators are in Washington to meet the secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, in order to conclude a last minute agreement.
Here are three areas where Mexico laughs at aligning the priorities of the Trump administration.
Curl
Mexico’s commitment to send 10,000 additional members of the National Guard to the American border was cited as a victory for Mr. Trump in early February, when he took a price break for 30 days.
For months, Mexico had already dismantled migrant caravans long before reaching border cities and developing a dark program that transported thousands of migrants in places deep inside Mexico.
Mexico detained About 475,000 migrants in the last quarter of 2024, according to government figures, more than double the amount held in the first nine months of the year.
The border was already exceptionally silent before Mr. Trump took up his duties in January, reflecting the measures to apply Mexico and asylum restrictions from the Biden administration.
The new efforts of the Trump administration to stifle migration flows, as well as the deployment of Mexico troops, make migrants even more difficult to enter the United States.
Migrant passages fell at levels once unthinkable. At one point in February, American staff on the Mexican border encounter Only 200 migrants in a single day, the lowest figure of this type of recent history.
If the trend is the holder of an annualized base, apprehensions of border patrols could decrease at levels for the last time almost 60 years ago towards the end of the Johnson administration, according to Adam Isacson, expert in migration at the Washington Office on America Latin.
Mexico has sought to repress cartels producing illicit drugs, in particular fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that Trump cited as the main cause of overdose death in the United States.
Marking a break from past policies, when the cartels have managed to produce fentanyl with negligible interference from the authorities, Mexican officials regularly announce the new fits of fentanyl pills in recent weeks.
These movements include the capture Last week of six kilos of fentanyl in the new International Airport in Mexico City, in a package sent to New Jersey. Who followed the discovery 18 kilograms of fentanyl hidden on a passenger bus in the state of the northwest border of Sonora.
In December, shortly after Mr. Trump began to threaten Mexico prices, the authorities had a colossal crisis of 800 kilograms of fentanyl in Sinaloa state, the greatest capture of synthetic opioids in Mexico.
In February, the Mexican authorities of Puerto Vallarta also arrested two American citizens who faced arrest mandates in the United States for fentanyl traffic. Both were extradited Oklahoma.
Mexico followed Thursday by sending to the United States nearly 30 best cartel agents desired by the American authorities, one of the largest transferred of this type in the history of the drug war.
The movements aim to both avoid prices and military intervention of the United States, which Mr. Trump threatened to take against the drug cartels operating in Mexico.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the mentor and predecessor of Mrs. Sheinbaum as president, had limit Anti-narcotic cooperation with the United States. Ms. Sheinbaum seems to adopt a different approach.
Mexican officials, for example, hosted CIA information, which has intensified secret drone flights above Mexico to drive out the fentanyl laboratories. The Minister of Mexico De La Défense said at the end of February that American drones had been used to find the best figures from the Sinaloa cartel.
Greater application could potentially help reduce overdose death in the United States, which has already been down.
In what could be a promising sign for Mexican negotiators who are looking for an agreement on prices, deaths by overdose fell About 24% in the 12 -month period ending in September 2024, compared to the same period of the previous year, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention American.
Counter China
Trade between China and Mexico had increased, fueling the concerns that China could use its foot in Mexico to obtain better access to American markets. A year ago, China’s expedition to Mexico was one of the Commercial routes to the fastest growth.
But now Mexico reveals its links with China, its second largest trading partner. Only a few days after Mr. Trump promised for the first time to impose prices, the authorities fishing A large complex of stores in downtown Mexico City selling counterfeit Chinese products.
Then Mexico imposed A 35% price on imports of Chinese clothes, while also targeting Chinese online retailers like Shein and TEMU by execution A 19% rate on goods imported through mail companies from China.
However, with various pricing threats on the horizon, Mexico could do more to appease the Trump administration by moving to brake the import of products such as semiconductors or cars, which quickly break into an important market for manufacturers of American cars.
