Gerrard Kaonga
Mexico has hit back with tariffs of their own after Trump hit the country with a 25 percent levy on imports into the US today.
President Claudia Sheinbaum isn’t backing down to Donald Trump as the US and Mexico continue to clash over trading goods.
This comes after Trump signed off on an order to 'hold China, Mexico and Canada accountable for their promises to halt the flood of poisonous drugs into the US' by placing 25 percent tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on China, which has since been doubled to 20 percent after China retaliated with their own tariffs.
On Tuesday (March 4), Sheinbaum announced that her country will respond to this move with its own retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
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However, Sheinbaum did not yet reveal what those goods would be. She explained that this announcement will come on Sunday (March 9) at a public event in Mexico City’s central plaza.
This has given people hope that there is still a route of de-escalation possible.
Speaking on the trade war between the two nations, she said: “There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations.”
She continued: “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.”
Sheinbaum has also addressed the ‘fact sheet’ that was published by the White House on March 3 where it claimed that Mexican drug traffickers persist because of 'an intolerable relationship with the government Mexico’.
Sheinbaum dismissed it and called it ‘offensive, defamatory and without support’.
She also argued that her administration has had many success in its war against the cartels highlighting that they have seized over a ton of fentanyl and have successfully been able to dismantle 329 methamphetamine labs.
The Mexican president also reiterated that the government was cooperating with the US government to combat the cartels and as recent as last week had sent 29 alleged drug cartel criminals requested by the country.
She added: “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.”