Mexican president cancels meeting with Donald Trump over border wall row

The Trump administration said Thursday that it would seek to impose a tax on imports, at least from countries with which the usa runs a trade deficit, as a way to pay for the wall on the border with Mexico that is one of President Trump’s central campaign promises.

Mr Trump also insisted the United States would recoup the costs for the barrier from Mexico, which has strongly objected.

Pena Nieto, who was to meet with Trump 31 January, responded a few hours later with his own tweet: “This morning we’ve informed the White House that I won’t attend the working meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with @Potus”. Cars are the number one import, meaning USA autos assembled there could cost thousands more.

Trade experts emphasize that tariffs on Mexican products would cost jobs in the US precisely because of that 40% figure. Mexico would nearly certainly enact retaliatory tariffs.

“I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us”.

The economic development model that Mexico, the United States and Canada have pursued since 1994 – that the three North American nations have a common future – was repudiated during the US presidential campaign.

Critics of Pena Nieto – whose approval ratings were just 12 per cent in a recent survey, the lowest for any Mexican president in the polling era – have hammered him for his perceived weakness on Trump. Officers with Mexico’s migration institute, which is in charge of immigration enforcement, have been dismissed for handing over migrants to the drug cartels that prey on them. Mexico would prefer to keep trade relations as they are, but that may no longer be possible. But he says it “clearly provides funding” for the wall. “The United States is not a party to the South China Sea dispute”, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

But trade is more of a two-way street.

Trump, in turn, blamed Mexico for the problems along the border while speaking at a GOP retreat in Philadelphia.

The threat not only violates the NAFTA Agreement, but represents a dagger in the heart of the World Trade Organization. Mexico City refuted that claim.

“It puts our communities at risk of being more vulnerable, and for there to be instances of hate crimes because of this rhetoric and the institutionalization of discrimination”, she said. There is no point meeting Pena Nieto then, he suggested in a Tweet.

When it comes to xenophobic actions that hurt the vulnerable and the voiceless, Trump has even more planned for this week.

And Mexico could retaliate by imposing similar tariffs on goods and services sold from the U.S. Already in Mexico, hashtags saying “adios”, or “goodbye”, to Walmart, Starbucks and Coca-Cola are trending.

President Trump himself has an interest in EnergyTransferPartners LP, which is involved in constructing a new pipeline to Mexico.

Trump’s plan for a wall and other immigration policies will not make the country safer or improve its economy, Rep. There are, notably, parallel negotiations taking place alongside the official government talks.

He said he would wait for a report from a high-level Mexican delegation holding meetings in the USA capital this week and consult governors and MPs before deciding on “the next steps to take”. According to a Stratfor source, the Mexican foreign ministry has increased its contacts with the Japanese government, possibly to discuss this very issue.