Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday, February 20th, that he had a “constructive dialogue” during a meeting with Trump’s top trade officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and U.S. Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer.
Ebrard said in a post on X that the “joint work” on U.S. trade matters starts today, Monday, Feb. 24.
Mexico has begun deploying as many as 10,000 national guard troops to its northern border, as part of the agreement that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said also called on the U.S. to work to stop the flow of firearms into Mexico.
Canada earlier this month created a new fentanyl czar to coordinate the fight against smuggling of the deadly opioid, appointing senior intelligence official Kevin Brosseau to the post.
Ottawa also has reclassified drug cartels as terrorist entities and has deployed drones, helicopters and other surveillance technologies on the vast northern U.S. border.
In December, the Canadian government announced a C$1.3 billion ($913 million) increase in border security spending in response to Trump’s tariff threat.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept in close contact with Trump on the border issues in recent days, including in a Saturday call that included discussions of joint efforts to curb fentanyl trade. He has threatened retaliatory tariffs on C$155 billion ($107 billion) of U.S. imports, including American beer, wine and bourbon and Florida orange juice, but said last week that Canada is “going to do the work” to ensure that tariffs are not imposed.
SMALL PACKAGE HURDLE
White House officials say Canada, Mexico and China are conduits for shipments of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the U.S. in small packages that are not often inspected.
A major hurdle to slowing these shipments is a pause in Trump’s abrupt order to suspend the duty-free “de minimis” exemption for packages valued at under $800 from the three countries because no procedures were in place to screen the millions of low-value express packages arriving at U.S. airports daily.
It’s unclear when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency will be able to close the de minimis loophole again. Trump’s initial fentanyl and border tariff order directed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to report regularly on the crisis to Trump and Congress.
TYT Newsroom
