Trump announces deal to avoid tariffs on Mexico
WASHINGTON — After marathon talks and threats of economic sanctions, Mexico and the United States have reached an agreement to curb immigration and avert punitive U.S. tariffs on Mexican exports, President Trump tweeted Friday.
The deal defuses, at least for now, widespread concerns of economic upheaval on both sides of the border if Trump carried out his threats to impose escalating sanctions on all imports from Mexico starting Monday, potentially disrupting billions of dollars of trade.
In a tweet Friday night, shortly after he returned to Washington from a five-day visit to the United Kingdom and France, Trump said that the two sides had signed an agreement and that the tariffs were “hereby indefinitely suspended.”
Mexico, he wrote, “has agreed to take strong measures” to stem migration through Mexico and to the U.S. border. “This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States,” he added.
Trump was facing stiff pressure from Republicans in Congress, business leaders, the car industry and border states who opposed the tariffs.
The U.S. State Department said the two sides agreed to more robust efforts by Mexico to block asylum seekers from reaching the U.S., including stepped-up patrol of the borders and a quicker return to Mexico of asylum seekers who reach the United States.
“The governments of the United States and Mexico will work together to immediately implement a durable solution,” the State Department said.
“There will be no application of tariffs,” Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Friday night via Twitter.
White House officials did not respond to requests for information on the shift in policy after insisting all week that Trump was likely to impose the trade penalties.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican and close Trump ally, tweeted “congratulations” on reaching a deal that he said would “substantially reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming through Mexico.”