President-elect Donald Trump threatens to hit Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs. He says they don’t seem to be doing sufficient to cease undocumented migrants and fentanyl smugglers from crossing into the U.S.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President-elect, Donald Trump is threatening a 25% tariff on items from Canada and Mexico. And an additional 10% tariff could also be placed on gadgets from China.
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
In response to Trump, these nations will not be doing sufficient to cease undocumented migrants or fentanyl from crossing into the U.S. Whereas arrests of migrants have been on the rise on the northern border, there are a fraction of these on the southern border, the place apprehensions are at a four-year low.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR’s Brian Mann covers the fentanyl disaster, joins us now to check out Trump’s promise. Now, Brian, it is a social media publish proper now, not coverage fairly but. However what does Donald Trump say he hopes to perform with this menace?
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Yeah, you are proper, A. It isn’t clear Trump’s going to comply with by way of on this. He does not take workplace for a few months. Plenty of negotiations are going to occur earlier than then. What Trump stated in social media posts Monday is that these nations aren’t doing sufficient to unravel what he describes as two of the largest issues hitting the U.S. – unlawful immigration and fentanyl, which remains to be killing tens of hundreds of individuals yearly. In response to Trump, Canada, China and Mexico may collectively simply remedy these issues. He added that when imposed, these tariffs would stay in place till medicine, together with fentanyl, and unlawful aliens – these are his phrases – cease this invasion of our nation.
MARTÍNEZ: However may China and Mexico actually simply shut down fentanyl smuggling similar to that?
MANN: Yeah. Specialists I talked to say no. It is simply not attainable. Jonathan Caulkins, a drug coverage skilled at Carnegie Mellon College says fentanyl is simply very easy to make and smuggle.
JONATHAN CAULKINS: Sadly, it is fairly tough to manage fentanyl as a result of it is really easy for the unlawful provide chains to supply and distribute it.
MANN: Vanda Felbab-Brown is a drug coverage skilled on the Brookings Establishment, and he or she agrees – what Trump is demanding right here, it simply is not going to occur.
VANDA FELBAB-BROWN: That’s an unachievable purpose. No nation will accomplish that.
MANN: What specialists say is the best-case situation is that Trump’s threats right here immediate negotiations that perhaps result in higher cooperation on migrants and fentanyl with extra real looking objectives.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, I am certain they’re all going to be speaking in some unspecified time in the future. So how are these nations responding up to now?
MANN: Effectively, you already know, first, it is necessary to say, most fentanyl does enter the U.S. from Mexico, usually passing by way of official border crossings. Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum responded by saying yesterday, fentanyl is primarily a U.S. drawback, one which requires a well being care and therapy response, she says, to scale back dependancy. That is been Mexico’s place for years. She additionally urged U.S. tariffs linked to fentanyl may set off a full-blown commerce warfare.
One different concern I am listening to from drug coverage specialists is {that a} commerce combat may unravel what has been rising worldwide cooperation concentrating on drug traffickers. Once more, this is Vanda Felbab-Brown at Brookings.
FELBAB-BROWN: Numerous Chinese language officers have instructed me the counternarcotics cooperation wouldn’t be capable to survive an imposition of considerable tariffs.
MANN: So if this energy transfer by Trump does not work, we may see China and Mexico backing away from intelligence-sharing and different cooperation with U.S. regulation enforcement. That might imply much less stress on these gangs which are smuggling fentanyl.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Brian, you’ve got been reporting that the fentanyl disaster has been easing in latest months with rather a lot fewer individuals dying. So what does Donald Trump say about that?
MANN: Effectively, Trump hasn’t truly acknowledged that progress. Writing on social media, he stated, we’re nonetheless seeing medicine coming throughout the border, and I am quoting right here, “at ranges by no means seen earlier than.” In actual fact, there’s been an enormous constructive shift over the past 12 months. Deadly overdoses, together with fentanyl, are dropping quick – about 16,000 fewer deaths. Most specialists I discuss to who credit score higher well being care and therapy. And so they fear that Trump’s menace right here of a global drug and commerce warfare could possibly be a distraction, pulling focus away from a public well being response that seems to be serving to.
MARTÍNEZ: That is NPR’s dependancy correspondent, Brian Mann. Brian, thanks.
MANN: Thanks, A.
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