Roughly 80% of Mexican exports go to the US, and experts say the tariffs could send the country into recession – though they would also hit the US economy and business interests too.
Mexico won a one-month reprieve from the previous deadline by agreeing to send 10,000 soldiers to the US-Mexico border – even though it was unclear how the extra soldiers would reduce the flow of fentanyl, given that it is so potent that only relatively small volumes are moved, and that the great majority is trafficked through ports of entry by US citizens.
Among the prisoners sent to the US was Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord who was convicted of the murder of an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985.
Mexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the US, as it faces intense pressure from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling fentanyl trafficking.
Mexico has stepped up its own actions against the Sinaloa cartel, one of the groups now considered a terrorist organisation by the US, arresting several significant figures in recent weeks.
