Tariffs Will Not Stop US-bound Migrants Or Drugs, Mexico Tells Trump

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that import tariffs proposed by President-elect Donald Trump will do nothing to stop US-bound undocumented migration or drug trafficking, his stated goal in announcing the levies.

"President Trump, it is not with threats or tariffs that the migration phenomenon will be stopped, nor the consumption of drugs in the United States," she told reporters, reading a letter she will send to Trump in which she proposes dialogue.

Trump said Monday he would impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada as one of his first actions upon becoming US president in January.

"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, without mentioning the trilateral free trade agreement both countries share with the United States.

Sheinbaum said "cooperation and mutual understanding" are required to address such issues and a tariff war would only put "common enterprises at risk."

She pointed to carmakers such as General Motors and Ford operating in Mexico to the benefit of both countries.

"Why put a tax on them that puts them at risk? It is not acceptable and would cause inflation and job losses in the United States and Mexico," the president said.

The United States, Mexico and Canada are tied to a three-decade-old free trade agreement, now called the USMCA, that was renegotiated under Trump after he complained that US businesses, especially automakers, were losing out.

Trump, who won an election in which illegal migration was a top issue, has vowed to declare a national emergency on border security and use the US military to carry out a mass deportation of undocumented migrants.

On Monday, he also vowed a new 10 percent tariff on imports from China.