Mexico continues to work in the race to please Donald Trump ahead of his return to the Oval Office this month. The government of Claudia Sheinbaum has tried to show success on three fronts that are sensitive to the Republican leader, who unleashed powerful turbulence in the financial and political markets threatening to impose 25% tariffs on all products coming from Mexico and Canada, because, he alleged, they are not doing enough to contain human and drug trafficking to the United States, and, in the particular case of the Aztecs, they would be serving as a bridge for a market-disturbing, competence-eroding flow of Chinese products to North America. Regarding this last point, the Ministry of Economy has recently cracked down on certain businesses trading mainly Chinese goods, assumed to be illegal on several grounds. The timing of this action, and the large seizures carried out, send a clear message. In mid-December, a 35% tariff on textile products coming from countries with which Mexico does not have a free trade agreement, was announced in the Zócalo Square. This is a protectionism that especially hits the Asian export market.
By the end of 2024, the new MORENA-powered administration signed fresh trade provisions imposing a 19% tariff on the import of goods carried out by courier and parcel companies. Trade under certain provisions of the Pacific Alliance Additional Protocol, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Mexico-Panama Free Trade Agreement, will only be free of tariffs when the import´s value is less than $1—a fancy way of effectively taxing most imports where these agreements are invoked. However, for the United States and Canada, this benefit expands to cover shipments below $50 when the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is invoked. Above this value, and up to $117, imports will be taxed at 17%. Thus, there will be less loss of incentive for companies like Amazon and greater pitfalls for Temu and Shein.
SourceYou can't oppose with fear
Cuban independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada denounced having been forced into exile by the Cuban government, whose security apparatus—he alleges—harassed him by applying different repressive methods. “The Cuban regime has exiled me. My journalism, my publications in Social Media, and my denunciations have hit its Achilles heel,” Tan Estrada accused from Guyana. But, I can assure you that the "independent" journalist left the country on an ordinary flight and that no one was pointing a gun at him to force him to leave the country. The same thing happened with Yunior Garcia, a so-called oppositionist who caused a lot of noise two years ago and fled shamefully to Madrid. Assuming as true the repressive character associated with the Cuban government, the main guarantee of its continuity in power would not be that alleged characteristic but cowardice and the lack of a code—i.e. non-negotiable principles—in those who claim to oppose it. It is not obligatory to confront a certain tyrannical regime—for the record, I am not assuming that label for the Cuban—, but if that path is taken, especially under such circumstances, the decision must be made when one is ready to make the greatest sacrifices, even when it comes to exposing one's life. That is not the mold of Tan Estrada or García. Nor that of Edmundo González. It was the mold of some of the region's recent leftist leaders, such as Fidel Castro in Cuba, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and Pepe Mujica in Uruguay.
On the Cuba problem, btw 👇
Leaked documents show Cuban military sitting on billions of dollars amid humanitarian crisis https://t.co/uv0bDyxNTF
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) January 1, 2025
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