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Canada is being accused of throwing Mexico beneath the bus amid a tariff risk forward of President-elect Donald Trump’s second time period within the White House.
Last week, Trump threatened he would impose a blanket 25% tariff on each international locations when he takes workplace in January until they secured their shared borders with the US.
Canadian officers have been fast to distance their nation’s border points from these of Mexico, arguing that drug smuggling and illegal crossings on the southern border have been a lot larger, and that Mexico was serving as a “back door” in North America for Chinese funding.
Those remarks haven’t gone unnoticed in Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum instructed the Associated Press this week that “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners”.
She added that Canada had its personal social issues with fentanyl use, including the nation “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has”.
Sheinbaum’s remarks got here after Canada’s US ambassador, Kirsten Hillman, instructed the information company that in a current dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed the president-elect that the northern border was “vastly different than the Mexican border”.
Doug Ford, chief of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, stated final week that lumping Canada and Mexico collectively on border safety – given the variations between the 2 boundaries – was “the most insulting thing” he has heard from the US, a long-time shut ally of Canada.
Canadian officers have additionally tried to place the US and Canada as a united entrance towards China, whereas saying they share considerations that China was utilizing Mexico as a backdoor to flood the North American market with low-cost imports.
In October, Canada imposed a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electrical automobiles (EV) after related bulletins by the US and European Union.
The nation additionally plans to impose a 25% obligation on Chinese metal and aluminium.
Mexico has not levied a equally steep tariff.
At the second, all three international locations are beneath a North American commerce settlement that was renegotiated throughout Trump’s first time period. It is up for renegotiation once more in 2026.
But tensions with China prompted Ford to repeatedly name for separate bilateral commerce offers between Canada, the US and Mexico – a proposal that has been backed by Danielle Smith, chief of Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta.
“They’ve had an opportunity to fix these concerns for years and they just don’t want to,” Ford stated in late November.
Trudeau has stated that whereas Canada most well-liked Mexico stay a united North American commerce associate, “we might have to take a look at different choices” if the country doesn’t address China trade.
Marta Leardi-Anderson, the executive director of the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor – an Ontario city connected by a bridge to Detroit, Michigan – said Ford’s comments are likely a reflection of Ontario’s deep reliance on its US trade relationship.
The province is at the heart of the highly integrated auto industry in Canada, and trade between Ontario and the US totalled more than C$493bn ($350bn) in 2023.
“That’s an enormous quantity of financial power from only one area of the nation,” Ms Leardi-Anderson said.
She added that Trump’s views on tariffs and border security have forced Mexico and Canada – also long-time allies – to dissect the shortcomings in their relationship in ways they have not done before.
These feedback have been seen as a betrayal by Mexico’s lead commerce negotiator, Gutierrez Romano, who told Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail final week that “it isn’t rational to be divided towards the United States”.
Ford’s comments and Trudeau’s perceived silence about them were also seen as offensive by some of the Mexican public, says Oliver Santín Peña, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
“Ultimately, it isn’t a great time within the bilateral relationship [between Canada and Mexico],” Mr Peña told the BBC, noting the nations have enjoyed a steady relationship for 85 years.
He said Sheinbaum’s response signals that she will stand up for Mexico when needed, but she is likely not seeking to open a two-front trade war with Trump and Trudeau.
“She wouldn’t fall for provocations,” Mr Peña said, but also wants to communicate “that her nation must be revered”.
Sheinbaum, who took office in October, is still establishing herself in the role and the country’s first woman president and has taken the position that Mexico is to be respected as a full and equal partner, particularly by its North American neighbours.
“I at all times will defend Mexico and Mexicans’ rights, together with these primarily based within the United States,” she told the BBC on the campaign trail when asked her about the possibility of working with a second Trump administration.
While both the northern and southern US borders have reported unlawful crossings and drug seizures, the numbers at the border with Canada are considerably lower than those at the Mexico border, according to official data.
US border agents have seized 43lbs (19.5kg) of fentanyl at the northern border between October 2023 and this September, compared to more than 21,000lbs at the southern border.
Over the same period, there were just under 200,000 migrant encounters at the northern border, and more than two million at the southern border.
Canada has promised to beef up border security since Trump’s surprise tariff threat.
Meanwhile, Sheinbaum has shared her country’s immigration strategy with Trump while emphasising her view of “respecting human rights”.
“We reiterate that Mexico’s place is to not shut borders however to construct bridges between governments and between peoples,” she has said.
Crossings at the US-Mexico border dropped sharply this summer after reaching record highs earlier under the Biden administration, in part due to efforts by Mexico to implement measures like setting up new checkpoints and increasing patrols.
Since Trump and Sheinbaum spoke on the phone following the tariff threats, Mexico has also made what it says is a record seizure of fentanyl – some 1,500 tablets with an estimated value of around $400m.
Mexico, China and Canada together account for more than a third of the goods and services both imported and exported by the US, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.
About 75% of Canada’s exports go to the US, and Canadian imports to the US are valued at $430bn, according to the United Nations Comtrade database on international trade.
Mexico is the top trading partner of the US with imports valued at $480bn.
With extra reporting from Will Grant in Mexico
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