US says Mexico failed to stop illegal wildlife trade threatening vaquita

The U.S. interior secretary on Friday declared that Mexico has failed to halt the illegal wildlife trade threatening the world’s smallest porpoise, the critically endangered vaquita, a move that opens the path for a possible trade embargo.
The vaquita, native to Mexico’s Gulf of California, is imperiled by black market fishing for an endangered fish called the totoaba, whose bladder is highly alued in Asia for use in traditional medicine. Mexico’s government has been under pressure to crack down on this illicit fishing.
“The government of Mexico has failed to stem the illegal harvest and commercial export of totoaba,” U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland wrote in a notification letter to the U.S. Congress. “This illicit trade has direct negative impacts on the survival of the vaquita.”
Under U.S. law, the president may embargo wildlife products and limit other imports from nations deemed by the interior secretary to engage in trade that undermines the effectiveness of any international treaty protecting endangered species to which the United States is a party.