Will Trump's tariffs on China stop flow of fentanyl into US? Here's what experts say
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- President Donald Trump has long been touting tariffs as a way to disrupt the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and this week he took action with a 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China.
"It's a drug war. Everybody wants to make it a trade war, but this is a drug war and we're just trying to stop the carnage," said Peter Navarro, Trump Administration Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing. Seventy-five thousand Americans die every single year. That's about as many people are going to be in the Superdome on Sunday. Because of the fentanyl precursors that come from China that go into Mexican drug cartel labs."
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The president hit pause on planned tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier this week, announcing Mexico has agreed to deploy thousands of National Guard members to the border, while Canada has agreed to appoint a "fentanyl czar."
Bob Beris is the Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
"DEA is absolutely in Mexico working with our partners down there trying to stem the tide down there as well as our domestic offices working to dismantle the cartels here," said Beris. "These aren't plant-based. These are chemical-based. So they don't need big vast fields of marijuana fields or poppy fields. These can be done literally in a basement, in a warehouse 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only limiting factor is how fast they can get these precursor chemicals.
Meanwhile, the experts say diplomatic pressure has long been a way of trying to get China's cooperation.
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"We do know from the past it can be done," said Dr. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and former White House senior drug policy advisor. "About 10 or 15 years ago there was a lot of diplomacy fairly quiet between the United States and China, which resulted in them scheduling, meaning controlling a certain set of chemicals that seems to have reduced overdose deaths in 2019."
However, the professor noted that while tactics such as tariffs can work, the way President Trump is going about it might not.
"The difference this time though is to do it in such a public and potentially humiliating way, it could backfire," said Humphreys, adding that in the past moves like this have been done more subtly. "China is a nuclear-armed superpower and very concerned about their image in the world so sometimes publicly demanding something from China and shaming China is less effective than talking to them quietly."
