Using Trump ego, Mexico and Canada take symbolic steps to address Trump’s misguided tariff attacks.
Mexico
As part of the arrangement reached with the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said her country would:
- Deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border 10,000 members of the Mexican National Guard, a militarized force tasked with security operations and, in recent years, migration enforcement efforts. The deployment is in addition to the mix of police forces, Mexican Army soldiers and guardsmen already patrolling the border. The National Guard troops will be focused on curbing the flow of fentanyl and illegal migrants into the United States.
- Establish two high-level working groups with U.S. officials, including one on security and another on trade. Ms. Sheinbaum said that the agreement also included U.S. action to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons into Mexico; Mr. Trump made no public mention of such a promise on Monday.
Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announced what appeared to be moderate concessions, after originally detailing the retaliatory tariffs his country was prepared to take against the United States. Mr. Trudeau said that Canada would:
- Continue to implement a spending plan at the border launched in December, worth 1.3 billion Canadian dollars, or $900 million. That figure includes the cost of two extra Blackhawk helicopters, 60 U.S.-made drones and other technical equipment that Canada deployed at the border last month.
- Continue, under that spending plan, to bolster personnel at the border. On Monday Mr. Trudeau said that would include stationing 10,000 “frontline personnel” at the border. It was not clear how many officials are already operating across the vast Canada-United States border, which, at over 5,500 miles, is the world’s longest.
- Redouble its efforts to tackle the opioid crisis — one that kills Canadians daily — by establishing a new position for a fentanyl czar, committing 200 million Canadian dollars to fresh intelligence gathering on cartels and criminal drug gangs and listing those groups as terrorist entities.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega reported from Mexico City and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Toronto.