The News
Colombia agreed to accept flights carrying deported migrants from the US after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs and sanctions on the country — becoming an early signal of how the new administration could wield US economic might to achieve its immigration agenda.
Just hours after Colombia’s reversal, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing would accept Chinese deportees, although some countries, including Mexico and Brazil, appear to be more prepared to resist deportations in at least some cases.
To mitigate any potential fallout from Trump’s economic and immigration agenda, world governments are looking to shore up trade deals with other partners besides the US. Meanwhile, some business leaders in countries that could see an influx in deportees are increasingly concerned that their economies aren’t prepared to accommodate them.
SIGNALS
Trump’s threats show that even political allies aren’t safe
In announcing the tariffs, US President Donald Trump may have been trying to make an example out of Bogotá, and dissuade other Latin American countries from defying him, Reuters reported. The president was ultimately willing to jeopardize decades of warm relations between the US and Colombia, a gamble that “sends a powerful message to the world, that not even old political allies are safe if they do not cooperate,” Bloomberg wrote. While Colombia backed down, Trump’s potential use of similar tactics in the future with other major US trading partners could create a dilemma for the new administration if those sanctions lead to higher prices for US consumers, the BBC noted.
Countries scramble to make trade deals under tariff threats
Donald Trump’s first term was marked by a flurry of global deal-making between governments worried about US protectionism’s effect on their economies. So far, his second term seems likely to be marked by similar pushes, the Financial Times wrote. The European Union has already finalized a long-awaited deal with South America’s Mercosur bloc, updated a treaty with Mexico, and reopened negotiations with Malaysia for a potential trade agreement, prompting one EU official to quip that Trump could be described as “the best EU trade commissioner ever.” The agreements demonstrate “the resilience of countries willing to co-operate even in the absence of traditional economic leaders like the US,” Malaysia’s trade minister said.
Mexico seems unprepared for trade restrictions, deportations
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pushed back on Donald Trump’s immigration plans since he took office, and reportedly has denied a military deportation flight from landing in the country despite the president’s threat of 25% tariffs. Mexican businesses are bracing for uncertainty, with towns in northern Mexico, particularly, largely unprepared for any economic fallout from Trump’s deportation and trade plans, El País reported. Several manufacturing plants that ship to the US have reportedly laid off hundreds of employees, while many local agencies just don’t have the capacity to accommodate a wave of deportees. “Our city does not have the infrastructure or the work to sustain [deportees],” a cross-border business coordinator based in Ciudad Juarez told the outlet.