President Donald Trump has long threatened to launch a trade war but the one he began on February 1st against Canada, China and Mexico is tangled with furious accusations about another war: the one on drugs. His executive orders state that Canada and Mexico are failing to control the flow of narcotics and migrants across their borders, and partly justify America’s 25% tariff on them as a punitive response, using the International Emergency Economic Powers act of 1977.
But Mr Trump’s most incendiary claims are reserved for China. The Communist Party, he says, “has subsidised and otherwise incentivised" Chinese firms to “export fentanyl and related precursor chemicals that are used to produce synthetic opioids sold illicitly in the United States". China “provides support to and safe haven for" transnational criminal organisations.
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