Mexico has contingency plans ready in case US President Donald Trump goes ahead with sweeping tariffs, his counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday on the eve of a deadline to avert duties.

“Whatever the decision, we have a plan,” she said at her morning news conference.

“There is constant communication in different areas, both security and trade, and we will wait to see what happens,” Sheinbaum added, underlining the need for patience.

“We have plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D,” she said, declining to give detail.

Shortly after taking office, Trump announced duties of 25 percent on Mexican imports, citing illegal immigration and the flow of deadly fentanyl.

Mexico vowed retaliatory tariffs before the two countries agreed on a one-month pause — which expires on Tuesday — after Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 more troops to the Mexican-US border.

Last week, senior Mexican officials held meetings in Washington with their US counterparts, pledging to take unspecified coordinated actions to tackle drug trafficking.

On Thursday, Mexico extradited some of its most notorious imprisoned drug lords to the United States, including a cartel kingpin wanted for decades over the murder of a US undercover agent.

Sheinbaum said that her government had made “the necessary agreements” with Washington and that the decision whether to apply tariffs “depends on the US government.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that Mexico had proposed matching Washington’s tariff hikes on China to seal a deal.

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

If Canada did the same, Bessent said, “we could have Fortress North America” guarding against a flood of Chinese goods.

AFP