WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Mexico City this week to promote cooperation with Mexican counterparts on combating illicit finance and the trafficking of fentanyl, along with strengthening Mexico’s role in U.S. supply chains, Treasury officials said on Monday.
Yellen’s Dec. 5-7 trip will include meetings with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and the country’s central bank governor and finance minister, among others, Treasury said in a statement.
The trip follows Treasury’s announcement on Monday of a counter-fentanyl “strike force” that will bring together the department’s resources, including the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit, to disrupt illicit drug trafficking.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month agreed to deepen cooperation to stem the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals, which are often mixed by Mexican drug gangs before distribution in the U.S.
(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
