Mexican and Canadian officials worked the phones and booked trips to Washington as time runs out to stave off President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs against the two largest US trading partners on Saturday.

With the clock ticking, officials were busy making their cases that they’ve done enough to control the border and limit fentanyl traffic to persuade the US president to stand down. Trump, who’s been known to change his mind at the last minute, was standing firm late Friday afternoon, telling reporters there’s nothing Mexico or Canada can do.

The governments of both US neighbors were taking a two-step approach to make their case to Trump administration officials and key US lawmakers: First, demonstrate real action on the border to try to hand Trump a “win” on fentanyl and undocumented migration. Second, warn there will be serious retaliation if tariffs are imposed.

The scale of their responses will depend on whether Trump’s actions match his rhetoric, according to officials in Canada and Mexico.

The Mexican government is sticking with what President Claudia Sheinbaum calls a “cool-headed” strategy to deal with Trump’s tariff pledges against the country, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Mexico will insist on maintaining a constant dialogue with Washington, and officials from Sheinbaum’s administration were expected to talk with US counterparts as soon as Friday.

Figuring out who to talk to is part of the challenge. Deputy Economy Minister for Trade Luis Rosendo Gutierrez is expected to travel to Washington on Monday, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. But he can’t meet with US trade or Commerce Department officials until they’re formally ratified, they said. Instead, he’ll talk to business leaders and associations.

Sheinbaum has also pointed to Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente as a key interlocutor to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. High-level teams from Mexico’s foreign ministry and the State Department are in frequent communication working on security and migration, according to people familiar with the matter, who added the State Department sees Mexico as making a significant effort on the latter.

In discussions with US officials and intermediaries, Sheinbaum’s government has touted its progress in disbanding caravans of migrants walking north. Mexico has also increased fentanyl and other drug raids in the last few months.

Sheinbaum’s team has mapped out a series of scenarios and responses depending on the timing and scale of Trump’s moves, the Mexican president reiterated at her morning news conferences over the course of the week.

“We are prepared, we have a plan, but we are always looking for dialogue,” Sheinbaum said Friday morning. Standing alongside her, Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that imposing trade levies would be “a strategic mistake” that will raise the cost of cars, refrigerators, computers, televisions, fruit and beer for US customers.

The tariffs would also “set aside” the Northern American free trade pact known as the USMCA, Sheinbaum added. She didn’t elaborate, but a person familiar with her thinking said she was suggesting that the region would need to rethink a deal that Trump appears to no longer care about sustaining.

‘Presenting Facts’

For Canadian officials, the focus is hammering home to their American counterparts that Canada has beefed up its border security in response to Trump’s stated concerns. That includes a C$1.3 billion ($894 million) plan unveiled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December to add helicopters, drones and other surveillance capacity.

“Canada’s border is strong and we’re making it stronger,” said Public Safety Minister David McGuinty, speaking to reporters. “When our largest ally raises concerns, we take it seriously.”

McGuinty was in Washington Friday to meet with US border czar Tom Homan, said a person familiar with the matter. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Immigration Minister Marc Miller also made the trek south to convince their American counterparts that the border is under control.

The Canadian officials come to the discussions armed with documents, charts and even time-lapse videos of certain border crossings.

“Every time I’m presenting our border plan, every time I’m presenting facts — which are, first, less than 1% of fentanyl that is in the US comes from Canada and less than 1% of illegal migrants in the US come from Canada — that is definitely resonating, so I think that we have a good strategy,” Joly said in a news conference Wednesday.

She added that in her Wednesday meeting with Rubio, she “made clear that should tariffs be imposed, we would retaliate and everything was on the table.”

Joly, McGuinty and Miller held a joint news conference Friday evening after their meetings in Washington, where the foreign minister stressed they’d received “positive feedback” from American officials. She reiterated Canada would be ready to retaliate “day one,” but noted her government hadn’t seen any concrete details of how Trump planned to carry out his 25% tariff threat.

“The reality is we have yet to see a piece of paper declaring that,” Joly said. “Of course President Trump has made many different declarations, which we take very seriously.”

Trudeau’s government won’t unveil its retaliation list until it sees what the Trump administration actually moves forward with, said a Canadian official with knowledge of the plan. But there are multiple stages of retaliatory tariffs ready to go, including a small list of high-profile goods such as Florida oranges and Kentucky bourbon, and a much larger list that could affect up to C$150 billion worth of US imports to Canada.

. Read more on Global Economics by NDTV Profit.The Canadian officials come to the discussions armed with documents, charts and even time-lapse videos of certain border crossings.  Read MoreGlobal Economics, World, Business, Bloomberg 

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