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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Mexico has proposed matching Washington’s tariffs on China and urged Canada to do the same, signaling a potential path to avert levies on their own exports in the coming days.

“I do think one very interesting proposal that the Mexican government has made is perhaps matching the US on our China tariffs,” Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. 

“I think it would be a nice gesture if the Canadians did it also, so in a way we could have ‘Fortress North America’ from the flood of Chinese imports,” he said.

Bloomberg reported earlier, citing people familiar with the matter, that Mexican officials were willing to raise tariffs on Chinese goods and find ways to buy more from the US in a bid to avoid duties threatened by President Donald Trump. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has been planning to make the offer as part of ongoing talks with the Trump administration, one of the people said, asking not to be identified without permission to speak publicly. 

The peso erased losses after Bessent’s comments, trading little changed at 20.51 to the dollar late Friday.

While it’s not immediately clear exactly how matching tariff rates across North America would work, the impact on Mexico and Canada trade with China could be significant.

Trump at the start of February imposed an extra 10% tariff on Chinese goods imported into the US. That’s on top of tariffs on goods from electric vehicles to semiconductors that were already raised by then-President Joe Biden last year. Still in place are higher tariffs from the first Trump administration on more than $300 billion in annual imports from China that were imposed due to alleged intellectual property theft from American companies.

One person familiar with Mexico’s plans said potential China tariffs would focus on cars and auto parts. They could also include finished goods, a second person said. 

Mexico’s Economy Ministry declined to comment. 

Canada already imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum this summer — in large part to align with US policy. A second wave of tariffs on Chinese goods such as critical minerals, semiconductors and solar panels was promised in December, but hasn’t yet been implemented and could be used as a negotiating card with Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mexico’s offering follows a meeting last week in which US officials — including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer — told their Mexican counterparts that they should put their own duties on Chinese imports. 

Mexico’s bid is the latest effort to avoid 25% tariffs, now set to start March 4, that Trump has threatened for the nation, as well as Canada, if they don’t do more to cooperate with the US. 

Trump has publicly tied tariffs to the flow of fentanyl and undocumented migrants to the US, but he has also complained about Chinese investment in Mexico. During last year’s campaign he railed against the use of Chinese components in vehicles made in Mexico. 

Mexico also has become a top importer of Chinese cars, alongside markets including Russia and Germany, with the growing popularity of brands like BYD Co.

Since the start of the year, Mexico has cracked down on cheap Asian imports, particularly from China, and imposed a tariff of up to 35% on finished clothing from countries without a free trade agreement, as it seeks to send a signal to negotiators north of the border.

Security, Trade Talks

US-Mexico talks on security and counter-narcotics are further advanced than on trade and tariffs, according to two other people familiar with the discussions.

In a bid to show its willingness to cooperate with the US on security, Mexico on Thursday handed over 29 people accused of drug trafficking and other crimes to face charges in the US. 

On Thursday afternoon, Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente and top officials from Mexico’s military and public security corps met in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Mexico in a statement afterwards called it a “very positive meeting” to advance on security, with a focus on drug and arms trafficking, and the exchange of information on intelligence and investigations.

Rubio said in a statement that he “expressed appreciation for Mexico’s actions to secure our common border, including deploying 10,000 National Guard troops, as well as major seizures of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals, and the expulsion of 29 major cartel figures to stand trial for their crimes, making both our nations safer.”

Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard also met with US Trade Representative Greer for the first time since his confirmation earlier this week, and met with Lutnick again.

Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O also was poised to meet for the first time with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington on Friday.

Ramirez and Bessent were expected to discuss issues including the willingness of Mexican financial authorities and banks to crack down on the country’s drug gangs and money laundering in the wake of the designation of the gangs as terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

--With assistance from Carolina Millan, Maya Averbuch, Michael O'Boyle and Brian Platt.

(Updates headline and first paragraphs to focus on Bessent comments.)

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