China defended its efforts to combat fentanyl in what has been years of touch-and-go cooperation with the U.S. China doesn't have the same fentanyl crisis among its own population, and doesn't view it as a priority, said Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
President Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China is partly aimed at combating the illicit flow of fentanyl into the U.S., where the opioid is blamed for some 70,000 overdose deaths annually.
To pause the tit-for-tat tariffs, Mexico agreed to immediately deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to the border to battle drug-trafficking, while the U.S. committed to do more to stop the trafficking of guns into Mexico, said Trump and Sheinbaum on social media.
"Even if Mexico, Canada and these other countries snap their fingers and did away with the drug trade, as long as we have that demand, there will be another country that will satisfy that demand,” said Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Neither Canada nor China has signaled major changes to tackle the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., and each has said it would retaliate for any U.S. tariffs.
