MEXICO – Mexico is doing everything it can to protect a regional trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada, the Latin American nation’s deputy economy minister said in an interview published on Friday. The three neighboring nations, and major partners in commerce, have entered a trade tussle after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on the countries to the north and the south if they did not clamp down on drugs and migrants coming into the U.S. Mexico is working on both issues in order to “come to the table” to negotiate without obstacles, Luis Rosendo Gutierrez told outlet Inside U.S. Trade., opens new tab Since Trump’s tariff threat, Mexico has launched an offense on contraband goods from Asia coming into the country, and officials seized a record amount of fentanyl. They have also detained thousands of migrants, vowing to prevent them from making it north.

In a statement issued late Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the country’s military and law enforcement officials for seizing over twenty million doses of illicit fentanyl. Mexican officials have been in touch with Trump allies, Gutierrez added, though they have not met with incoming administration officials. The exception is Jamieson Greer, Trump’s tapped trade representative, with whom Gutierrez met before his nomination. (Reuters)

Photo: Flags of the U.S., Canada and Mexico fly next to each other in Detroit, Michigan. (Reuters)