New Senate bill seeks to tackle the flow of fentanyl into the US from China and Mexico

In a rare bipartisan move, two senators have introduced legislation in the latest attempt to fight the flow of fentanyl and its precursors into the United States from China, Mexico and through other borders — one reason that President Donald Trump has given for his new tariffs.

In imposing taxes, or tariffs, on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, Trump says those countries have failed to stem the trafficking of fentanyl into the U.S., among other issues. The governments in those nations all say they have cooperated on the matter, and Trump said Thursday that he had postponed tariffs for a month on most goods from Mexico following a talk with the country’s president.

The bill does not link tariffs to fentanyl smuggling but seeks expanded authority to sanction state-owned or state-controlled Chinese entities, including banks, involved in financing foreign opioid trafficking. The measure also would have the U.S. government track more chemicals that can be used to make methamphetamines.

The legislation was introduced Thursday by Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the committee’s top Democrat.

Risch called China “the single greatest source of fentanyl and synthetic opioid precursors to Mexican cartels” and he accused the Chinese government of supporting the activity.

“These opioids then come across our southern border and kill over 100,000 Americans every year. This needs to end and the perpetrators need to be held accountable,” Risch said.

Shaheen said the U.S. should “use every tool at our disposal to cut off the flow of fentanyl.”

She said that China is “the primary supplier of fentanyl precursors fueling this epidemic, and it has not done enough to curb the export of these chemicals to Mexican transnational criminal groups who seek to traffic fentanyl into the U.S.”

Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Ebassy in Washington, accused the U.S. of spreading “all kinds of lies” on the fentanyl issue.

“We are willing to carry out pragmatic cooperation with the United States on the basis of equality and mutual respect, but we firmly oppose the United States using the fentanyl issue as an excuse to put pressure, threaten and blackmail China,” Liu said.

Last year, a report by a special House committee focused on countering the Chinese government said Beijing was fueling the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. by subsidizing the manufacturing of materials used by traffickers to make the drug outside the country.

The Chinese government says it has taken many steps, including “striking hard against fentanyl-related crimes,” “enforcing strict control over precursors of fentanyl-related substances” and “promoting global governance of fentanyl-related substances.”

In June, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said police arrested a suspect identified by U.S. law enforcement in a case involving a complicated web of money laundering and drug trafficking in China, Mexico and the U.S.. The suspect allegedly ran an auto sales business in the U.S. engaged in illicit foreign currency trading.

In the U.S., the Drug Enforcement Administration found that fentanyl precursors and equipment to manufacture pills flowed from China to labs in Mexico, which made fentanyl powder and pills to be smuggled in. The DEA said drug money was laundered through Chinese underground banks.

The latest tariffs by the Trump administration on Chinese goods threaten to disrupt cooperation on the issue from the Chinese government, as Beijing is upset that Trump is linking tariffs to the fentanyl smuggling.

“The U.S., not anyone else, is responsible for the #FentanylCrisis inside the U.S.,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on X. “In the spirit of humanity and goodwill towards the American people, we have taken robust steps to assist the U.S. in dealing with the issue.”

Further moves by the U.S. to pressure China with higher tariffs would only “undermine our counternarcotics dialogue and cooperation,” the ministry said.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the bill would have the government track more chemicals used to make methamphetamines, not fentanyl.