Yellen To Discuss Narcotics And Trade In Mexico

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Mexico today for a three-day trip designed to strengthen cooperation on narcotics and boost bilateral trade.

• Treasury said in a statement that Yellen will, “engage with government and private sector leaders to strengthen U.S.-Mexico collaboration on countering fentanyl and illicit finance, deepening mutually-beneficial economic ties, bolstering supply chain resilience through friend-shoring, and other shared economic priorities.”
• Yellen will meet with law enforcement, private enterprise and central bank officials ahead of meetings with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and her counterpart, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, on Thursday.
• The trip comes as the Treasury Department launches a ‘counter-Fentanyl strike force,’ which Yellen says will, “bring the Department’s unrivaled expertise in fighting financial crime to bear against this deadly epidemic," adding that, "Treasury will use every tool at its disposal to disrupt the ability of drug traffickers to peddle this poison in our country.”
• An agreement with China to tackle the flow of precursor chemicals out of China was one of the major deliverables from President Biden’s bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC Summit last month. If the Biden administration can extend that agreement to limit the flow of Fentanyl, manufactured in Mexico, into the US, it could de-risk a political vulnerability for Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election.