Trump drops Mexico tariff threat after migrant deal

Pledge to stem migration across border persuades president to scrap move amid Republican rebellion

DONALD TRUMP cancelled plans to hit Mexico with tariffs just days before they were to take effect, touting new promises over reducing illegal migration into America.

The US president had announced that all goods imported from Mexico would be hit with a 5 per cent tariff from tomorrow, but scrapped the move on Friday evening.

“The tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the US on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended,” Mr Trump tweeted.

“Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of migration through Mexico, and to our southern border.”

The reversal was welcome relief for both Mexico, which sells $350million worth of goods to America each year, and US importers, who would have had to pay the tariff.

Trade experts had warned that Americans would be hurt through price rises and Republican congressmen were threatening to vote it down.

A US-Mexico agreement published after three days of talks in Washington DC included promises that the Mexican government had made to curb migrants crossing into America.

It said Mexico would deploy their National Guard throughout the country, including at its own southern border with Guatemala.

Mexico also agreed to increase participation in a Trump administration programme called the Migrant Protection Protocols, which sees some migrants wait in Mexico while their US asylum claims are processed. The joint declaration said Mexico had agreed to “take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration”.

For Trump allies, the saga showed the president’s ability to win concessions simply by threatening tariffs and creating leverage at the negotiating table. But critics questioned Mr Trump’s willingness to risk the US-Mexico trading relationship and his claim of victory over loosely worded promises. They also questioned whether the policies mentioned would prove effective.

The initial move was taken with Mr Trump under pressure politically for failing to oversee a marked drop in illegal immigration – one of the central themes of his 2016 presidential race.

A rebellion among Republican congressmen had emerged this week, which may partly explain the reversal.

Mr Trump tweeted yesterday: “Everyone very excited about the new deal with Mexico!” He also thanked Mexican leaders for their part in talks. But Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat 2020 presidential hopeful who grew up in Texas on the US-Mexico border, was dismissive, saying: “What we see is yet another example of him trying to be both the arsonist who created this problem… and the firefighter who wants credit for addressing it.”

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president, who had planned to visit the border city of Tijuana to show solidarity, said that his trip would instead be to “celebrate”.

“Thanks to the support of all Mexicans, we were able to avoid tariffs,” tweeted Mr López Obrador.