Trump’s talk of border tax opens rift with Mexico
PENA NIETO CALLS OFF MEETING WITH U.S. PRESIDENT OVER PROPOSED BORDER BARRIER
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday called off a trip to Washington, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched his plan to construct a border wall and insisted he would stick Mexico with the bill. The incident opened one of the most serious rifts in memory between the United States and its southern neighbour.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer added a stunning new detail about the proposed wall project later Thursday, saying that Trump intended to pay for it by imposing a 20-per-cent tax on all imports from Mexico. Spicer later said that was just one option on the table.
Meanwhile, the chief of the Border Patrol, the agency in charge of securing America’s borders with Mexico and Canada, quit Thursday after being asked to leave, and the entire senior level of management at the State Department resigned earlier — part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers.
Pena Nieto had been scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday to discuss immigration, trade and drug-war cooperation. He called off the visit after an early morning Trump tweet.
“If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting,” Trump wrote at 8.55 a.m.
Three hours later Pena Nieto sent out 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.”
Trump’s moves have rekindled old resentments in Mexico, a country that during its history has often felt bullied and threatened by its wealthier, more powerful neighbour. The legacy of heavy-handed U.S. behaviour — which includes invasions and the seizure of significant Mexican lands — has mostly been played down by a generation of Mexican leaders who have pursued pragmatic policies and mutual economic interests with both Republican and Democratic U.S. administrations.
Both Pena Nieto and Spicer said that their countries were interested in maintaining positive relations. “We will keep the lines of communication open,” Spicer told reporters in Washington on Thursday morning, adding that the White House would “look for a date to schedule something in the future.” The Mexican president tweeted that his government was willing to work with the United States “to reach agreements that benefit both nations.”
Mexicans view a wall across the 3,200 kilometre border as a symbolic affront, part of a package of Trump policies that could cause the country serious economic pain. They include a crackdown on illegal immigrants, who send billions of dollars home, and renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The treaty has allowed trade between the neighbours to mushroom. Every day, $1.4 billion in goods cross the U.S.Mexico border, and millions of jobs are linked to trade on both sides. Mexico is the second largest customer for American-made products in the world, and 80 per cent of Mexican exports — automobiles, flat screen TVs, avocados — are sold to the U.S.
During a speech at a GOP policy retreat later in the day in Philadelphia, Trump described NAFTA as a “terrible deal, a total disaster for the United States,” and said that the move of manufacturing to Mexico cost millions of American jobs and the closure of “thousands and thousands of plants” across the country.
Trump faulted the Mexicans for damaging the relationship.
Addressing the GOP policy retreat, Trump said, “The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting” next Tuesday. “Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless.”
It was not clear exactly how the Trump administration would impose the new tax on Mexican exports. But Spicer said it would be part of a broader plan to tax imports from countries with which the United States has a trade deficit, like Mexico.
Pena Nieto’s decision to cancel the trip came a day after Trump signed an executive order to construct a border wall, one of Trump’s signature promises and a rallying cry for his supporters during last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump’s ongoing feud with the media continued Thursday when Steve Bannon, the president’s chief White House strategist, said the media should “keep its mouth shut.”
In an interview with The New York Times, published Thursday, Bannon said that the media is the “opposition party” of the new administration and “should be embarrassed and humiliated” by the unanticipated election result.
The article cites Bannon as referring to himself at one point as “Darth Vader.”
Asked if he was concerned that press secretary Spicer lost credibility after a forceful opening news conference peppered with false information, Bannon replied, “we think that’s a badge of honour.”
He adds, “The media has zero integrity, zero intelligence and no hard work.”