Mexico Open to New Tariffs on China to Avoid Trump Duties

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U.S. 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 U.S. on our China tariffs,” Bessent told 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 U.S. 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.

While it’s not immediately clear exactly how matching tariff rates across No…