Dark Enlightenment: Meet the authoritarian ideology influencing the new right in the US

5:00

MEXICO CITY - The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum , and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen , reacted this Saturday, 12, to the threats of the American president, Donald Trump , to impose tariffs of 30% on Mexican and European bloc products arriving in the United States from the 1st with requests to negotiate new tariff agreements with the White House.

The threats are the latest from Trump this week. On Wednesday, Brazil also joined the latest wave of Trump's tariff war, announcing that Brazilian products will be taxed 50% starting on the same date if the country does not drop its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro for a coup.

The Mexican president expressed confidence that an agreement with her neighbor would be reached, emphasizing that a negotiating table was opened in Washington on Friday the 10th between officials from both countries. At the meeting, representatives from the Mexican government's Ministries of Economy and Foreign Affairs were informed of the new tariffs and responded by stating that the agreement was unfair and that they disagreed with the terms.

Both ministries explained that"Mexico is already in negotiations" to reach an agreement on "an alternative" to the tariffs "that protects companies and jobs on both sides of the border."

The European leader criticized the tax and was emphatic in saying that the bloc will take "all necessary measures" to protect the EU's interests, but declared that the European bloc wants to work on a trade agreement with Washington.

"We remain ready to continue working towards an agreement before August 1st. At the same time, we will take all necessary measures to safeguard the EU's interests, including adopting proportionate countermeasures if necessary," he declared.

The Republican justified the tariffs on the neighboring country as a response to the fentanyl crisis, which he said was caused in part by Mexico's alleged failure to combat drug trafficking."Mexico has still failed to stop the cartels trying to turn all of North America into a drug trafficking playground," Trump said in the document.

As for the European economic bloc, Trump says the tariff offensive aims to reduce the United States' trade deficit with the European Union."Understand that the 30% is far below what is needed to eliminate the disparity in the trade deficit with the EU," the Republican wrote. /AFP