Mexico warns of tariffs, spurns aid under review by Trump
America to accept proposals next month for border wall design
Pena Nieto had faced criticism that he was too accommodating with Trump but got a much needed ratings boost after canceling the summit. A plan to deport thirdcountry nationals to Mexico fueled outrage this week.
Mexican officials were publicly blunt with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly over Trump’s immigration and trade proposals in a visit to Mexico on Thursday.
Osorio Chong told local radio that Mexican officials’ rejection of Trump’s bid to send non-Mexican illegal migrants from the US to Mexico was “very clear.”
“They asked us if (non-Mexican illegal immigrants) could be here while they are going through the legal process there. We said that there was...absolutely no way.”
Videgaray said the trade strategy would replicate a 2009 campaign of retaliatory tariffs that helped Mexico win a dispute with the US. On Wednesday, the minister mentioned Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin as states that could be targeted in a conversation with lawmakers leaked to two newspapers.
“This is not our preference,” he said. “Mexico believes in free trade.”
A US executive order on Jan. 25 that mandated the construction of a border wall also required government agencies to report the financial assistance they gave Mexico in the past five years, leading to specu- lation Trump wants to redirect the aid to pay for its construction.
Osorio Chong said on Friday that Mexico had no need for such financial aid from the US, signaling that it would not come close to paying for the estimated $21.6 billion cost of the wall.
Like in other middle-income emerging economies, many in Mexico consider it humiliating to take aid from wealthy countries.
A large part of US aid to Mexico comes through the Plan Merida program, under which the US Congress allocated $2.6 billion to security assistance between 2008 and 2016.
Of that, $1.6 billion had been disbursed by November 2016, according to the US Congressional Research Service.
“When they realize what’s left of Merida, they will understand that it’s not even that significant,” Osorio Chong told local radio.
“We don’t object to them moving these resources... Mexico now has its own capabilities,” he said.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said on Friday it will accept proposals next month for the design of Trump’s wall, a first step in picking vendors.
Videgaray said a meeting of Tillerson, Kelly and Pena Nieto in Mexico City was a short courtesy visit.
He said in a more substantial meeting of the ministers, Kelly told him that deportations of undocumented immigrants from the US would not be militarized, after Trump characterized the process as a “military operation.”