Mexico’s legislature deserves praise for its stand against Beijing last week, approving a new law that will impose tariffs of up to 50% on Chinese imports. Backed by President Claudia Sheinbaum, the measure targets roughly $125 billion in annual trade and signals that Mexico is no longer willing to tolerate China’s long-running trade abuses.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry understandably isn’t happy. Warning Mexico to proceed carefully, the ministry absurdly claimed that “China has always opposed all forms of unilateral tariff imposition.” The opposite is true. Under Xi Jinping, China has turned trade malpractice into a perverse art form.
Rampantly subsidizing key state industries in breach of World Trade Organization rules, Xi has artificially cheapened his exports to take a stranglehold on key export markets ranging from automobiles to plastics to electronics. With the Chinese reluctant to spend their money at home and thus boost the struggling domestic economy, Xi has doubled down on efforts to dump excess Chinese products into foreign markets. Mexico and the Trump administration are not alone in their concerns over this. The European Union is also escalating trade countermeasures against Beijing.
Mexico’s action is particularly important for the United States. China has traditionally used the Mexican market as a workaround to U.S. tariffs on its direct exports. So, while this legislation is primarily designed to protect Mexican manufacturers against Chinese dumping, it will also benefit the U.S.
The U.S. will also benefit from this law in the broader diplomatic arena. After all, with Mexico finding the courage to confront Chinese trade malpractices, Beijing loses its ability to claim that only American “unilateralists” oppose its offer of “win-win cooperation.” This offer has always been a lie. China pretends to seek mutually beneficial compromise with floral rhetoric and then does everything possible to steal, cajole, and coerce its way into a wholly dominant relationship that provides outsize trade benefits to Beijing alongside the growing political subjugation of its trade partners.
If, however, China finds itself facing a growing array of democracies that reject its trade strategy, it will either have to abandon that strategy in favor of boosting domestic consumption (something Xi fears due to his belief it will foster growing capitalist sentiments) or face systemic economic decline.
If nothing else, Sheinbaum is proving to be a far more productive partner than her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He was a corrupt tool of the Sinaloa drug cartel and preferred far-left populist posturing to the hard work of challenging China and securing his northern border. Sheinbaum’s efforts to counter the drug cartels have been better but still far from enough to cope with the increasingly serious threat both to U.S. security and Mexican sovereignty.
SIX-YEAR-OLD IMMIGRATION COURT ERROR HAUNTS KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA CASE
Still, Sheinbaum deserves praise for this move and for her efforts to reduce illegal migration flows across the U.S. southern border. There is no way that the dramatic reduction in illegal border crossings secured since President Donald Trump’s return to office could have been achieved without Sheinbaum’s collaboration.
As the U.S., Mexico, and Canada move to renegotiate the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement next year, Trump should recognize that Sheinbaum is taking real steps to address American concerns. There is a clear foundation to build upon.