Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed that she had “an excellent conversation” on Monday morning with U.S. President Donald Trump, “with great respect for our relationship and sovereignty.”
In a post on X, Sheinbaum said the 2 reached “a series of agreements” during their conversation, two days after the Mexican president ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the U.S. decision to slap 25 per cent levies on all goods coming from Mexico as a trade war broke out between the 2 neighbours.
“1. Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard to stop drug trafficking from Mexico to the USA, particularly fentanyl,” Sheinbaum wrote, explaining the agreements.
“2. The USA is committed to working to stop the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico. 3. Our teams will begin working today on two fronts: security and trade,” she continued.
Sheinbaum also said that the fourth agreement is that the USA is “pausing tariffs for one month from now.”
Trump confirmed on TruthSocial that they had a “very friendly conversation” and that they may “immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period.”
“We further agreed to instantly pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we can have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico. I stay up for participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we try to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries,” he wrote.
On Sunday, Sheinbaum said that reason should prevail a day after her government and the U.S. announced tariffs against each other, raising her fist within the air as she said she doesn’t lack the courage to reply.
Trump said on Sunday that the sweeping tariffs he imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause “some pain” for Americans, as Wall Street and the most important U.S. trading partners signalled hope that the trade war wouldn’t last long.
In a speech outside the Mexican capital on Sunday, Sheinbaum raised her fist within the air and said the trade penalties first ordered by Trump will hit his own individuals with higher prices.
She said her government preferred dialogue reasonably than confrontation with its top trade partner to the north.
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In a lengthy statement on X, Sheinbaum addressed Trump’s statement that the tariffs against Mexico were a response to illegal immigration and the “alliance” between drug trafficking organizations and Mexico’s government.
“We categorically reject the White House’s slanderous claim that the Mexico government has alliances with criminal organizations, in addition to any try to intervene in our territory,” Sheinbaum wrote on X. “If there’s anywhere that such an alliance actually exists, it’s in the USA gun factories that sell high-powered weapons to those criminal groups.”
Sheinbaum said the Mexican government has “seized greater than 40 tons of medication in 4 months,” including “20 million doses of fentanyl,” and has “arrested greater than ten thousand people linked to those groups.”
“If the U.S. government and its agencies want to deal with the intense fentanyl consumption problem of their country, they might, for instance, combat the sale of narcotics on the streets of their major cities—something they don’t do—in addition to the cash laundering generated by this criminal activity, which has caused significant harm to their population,” she added.
Claudia Sheinbaum speaking during a briefing conference in regards to the immigration issue after Donald Trump took office because the forty seventh President of the USA, briefing held on the National Palace. on January 22, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Carlos Santiago
Sheinbaum also suggested that the U.S. could “launch a large campaign to stop drug consumption and protect their youth” like Mexico has done.
“Drug consumption and distribution occur in their very own country, and that may be a public health problem they’ve not addressed. Furthermore, the synthetic opioid epidemic in the USA originates from the indiscriminate prescription of those medications, authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as demonstrated by the legal case against a pharmaceutical company,” Sheinbaum wrote.
“Mexico doesn’t seek confrontation. We consider in collaboration between neighbouring countries. Mexico doesn’t want fentanyl to succeed in the USA—or anywhere else. Subsequently, if the USA truly desires to combat the criminal groups that traffic drugs and fuel violence, we must work together in a comprehensive manner, but all the time under the principles of shared responsibility, mutual trust, collaboration, and, above all, respect for sovereignty—which is non-negotiable. Coordination, yes; subordination, no.”
Sheinbaum proposed to Trump that they establish a working group with their best security and public health teams.
“Tariffs won’t solve these problems. As a substitute, we must talk and negotiate, just as now we have in recent weeks with the U.S. State Department to deal with migration, all the time respecting human rights on our side,” she said.
“I’m instructing the Secretary of Economy to implement Plan B, which now we have been preparing, including tariff and non-tariff measures to defend Mexico’s interests,” she wrote, without specifying what U.S. goods her government will goal.
“Nothing by force; every little thing through reason and law,” she concluded her post.
On Sunday, the governors of Mexico’s 31 states and Mexico City backed Sheinbaum in a joint statement.
“We energetically condemn the accusations that suggest there’s a link between our government and narco-trafficking cartels,” it said. “These claims should not only baseless, in addition they ignore the foremost, verifiable efforts Mexico has made to combat organized crime,” the statement read.
Mexico’s economy minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said on X that Trump is hurting himself.
“Accusing the Mexican government of being an ally of narco [traffickers] is – aside from an insult to our country – a pretext to distract US public opinion from the tremendous mistake of imposing disruptive tariffs on Mexico and North American corporations that operate here. Shooting oneself within the foot,” Ebrard wrote.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sheinbaum spoke by phone Saturday after Trump’s administration imposed the brand new tariffs — 25 per cent on goods from Canada and Mexico, with a lower rate of 10 per cent for Canadian oil, and 10 per cent on imports from China.
Trudeau’s office said in a press release that Canada and Mexico agreed “to boost the strong bilateral relations” between their countries. Canadian officials have had extensive dialogue with their Mexican counterparts, but a senior Canadian official said he wouldn’t go so far as to say the tariff responses were coordinated.
“Now could be the time to decide on products made right here in Canada,” Trudeau posted Sunday on X. “Check the labels. Let’s do our part. Wherever we are able to, select Canada.”
Trump is making a significant political bet that his actions won’t significantly worsen inflation, cause financial aftershocks that might destabilize the worldwide economy or provoke a voter backlash.
With the tariffs, Trump is honouring guarantees which are on the core of his economic and national security philosophy. The announcement showed his seriousness around the problem as some Trump allies had played down the specter of higher import taxes as mere negotiating tactics.
Trump has said the federal government should raise more of its revenues from tariffs, because it did before the income tax became a part of the U.S. Structure in 1913. He claims, despite economic evidence on the contrary, that the U.S. was at its wealthiest within the Nineties under then-president William McKinley.
—With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
