MEXICO CITY (AP) — Threats by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to impose tariffs have created a split between Canada and Mexico, after Canadian officials said problems with the two countries’ borders shouldn’t be compared.
On Monday, Mexico’s president rejected those comments, which were made following a meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said, after Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood.”
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Sheinbaum said Canada had its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.”
Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs at the two countries’ border are vastly different.
U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. Mexico’s efforts to seize fentanyl before it reaches the U.S. have been lackluster.
Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone, while there were only 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024. During the same period, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border withe Mexico.
Mexico feels especially hurt by the Canadian comments, because Mexican officials claim their government went to bat for Canada in the past. They claim that Trump, during his first term, initially wanted to leave Canada out of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement in 2018, and Mexico demanded it be included. It is unclear if that was actually the case.
Trudeau also got ahead of Sheinbaum by meeting with the U.S. president-elect first. Both leaders are scrambling to get some assurances before Trump takes office.
Hillman said Canada is ready to make new investments in border security and there are plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers. She also noted an agreement between Canada and the U.S. that allows for migrants caught crossing illegally to be sent back to Canada. She said Mexico and the U.S. do not have a similar agreement.
On Monday, Sheinbaum revealed more about her own conversation last week with Trump, saying he “had agreed” that Mexico wanted to focus on intelligence sharing in anti-drug efforts, noting “he said that in his opinion that was good.”
But she said Mexico would reject any direct U.S. intervention in Mexico and continue to enforce the tight restrictions on U.S. law enforcement agencies in Mexico imposed by her predecessor. “That is going to maintained,” she said.
