US President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico to put pressure on the country to keep migrants from crossing into the US. Mexico has said the tariffs would only make the migration problem worse.
US and Mexican officials began talks on Monday to try and avert the threat of US tariffs on Mexican goods that would kick in on June 10.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he was confident a deal to avoid tariffs would come out of the talks that could last the whole week. The country’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said that Mexican officials would be presenting their US counterparts with documents detailing the impact of US-imposed tariffs on both countries.
Last month, US President Donald Trump said the US would impose a 5% tariff as part of a strategy to force Mexico to do more to secure the country’s borders and keep migrants from crossing into the US.
“Tariffs, along with the decision to cancel aid programs to the northern Central American countries, could have a counterproductive effect and would not reduce migration flows,” the Mexican ambassador to the US, Martha Barcena, said Monday.
On Sunday, Trump said on Twitter that Mexico was an “abuser” of the US, and that if Mexico didn’t stop the “invasion” of the US, jobs and companies would be brought back through taxation.