An emboldened Mexico hardened its opposition to President Donald Trump on Friday by saying it would retaliate if the United States imposed a border tax and that it can afford to lose financial aid that might be pulled to pay for a border wall.
Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Mexico could respond to any tax the United States were to unilaterally impose on imports from its southern neighbor to finance the wall with levies on select goods, aimed at U.S. regions most dependent on exports south of the border.
“Without a doubt, we have that possibility, and what we cannot do is remain with our arms crossed,” Videgaray said in a radio interview. “The Mexican government would have to respond.”
The statements by Videgaray and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, who minimized the potential impact of the rumored loss of U.S. security aid, toughened the defiant tone from Mexico since President Enrique Pena Nieto last month canceled a trip to meet Trump over the wall dispute.
Mexicans are angry at Trump’s calls for U.S. firms not to invest south of the border, insults to immigrants and threats to make Mexico finance the border wall. The peso currency has weakened on concerns he will hurt Latin America’s No. 2 economy.
Pena Nieto had faced criticism he was too accommodating with Trump but got a much needed ratings boost after cancelling the summit. A plan to deport third-country nationals to Mexico fueled outrage this week.
Mexican officials were publicly blunt with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and 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 United States 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 United States. 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.”
NO HANDOUTS PLEASE
A U.S. 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 speculation 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 United States, 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 U.S. aid to Mexico comes through the Plan Merida program, under which the U.S. Congress allocated $2.6 billion to security assistance between 2008 and 2016.
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Of that, $1.6 billion had been disbursed by November 2016, according to the U.S. 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 U.S. Customs and Border Protection 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 United States would not be militarized, after Trump characterized the process as a “military operation.”
Trump damn out of order and a look a serious fight. For one, US cannot remove a person from its territories without obtaining orgin verification from consulate/embassy, plus aome country nah tek back nobody .
Ask a deportee why dem end up in immigration holding for a long time. Ask who were in holding and eventually turn loose why…besides ratting out.
Jamaica if it feel over whelm can join the rest of nations on the Recalcitrance list :ngakak
Ms MET I’ve been very silent for a while because its like its just a waste of time following up on that clown and his circus, every day he have the american people on the edge, don’t know what he’ll do the next day, and parallel to that you have more of his filth coming out piece by piece,and believe me the russian saga is just a drop in the bucket compare to whats to come(heard he has done backdoor dealings with china in return to change his tune on the one china policy? thats another blackmail coming/coming out), I’m sure you notice he’s getting very desperate now, to the point where he is trying to ban the media from the white house(as if thats going to help),have you heard a lot of those republicans in congress were in on the russian meddling? thats the reason why they’re 1.silent on his controversial executive orders since he took office? and 2. trying to impede due process, investigations into the scandals etc. because he and his administration has dirt on them, a lot of them were taking $$$$ from russian intelligence as far back as 2012, while lambasting president obama on his policies?
have you heard fbi director comey gonna flip the script on their backside now to save his ass? also juliane assange is thinking about doing the same because the man in the presidential race in equador is leading in the polls? just as you said even before he got elected that orange man is heading straight to the frying pan.
Yes the information is getting overwhelming but I still think the nail for him is in russia because of all the people connected to the case
IN THE MEAN time lord help us all a we wheter we live in us or no, a some shit hole him a dig, the man don’t know what fi say tomorrow if u listen good him kip repeating sentence after sentence like when oliver a sing the little danna, did u guys see the article in loop Jamaica how him detain one a Mohamed ali ex wife khalilah and son on 6th a feb while coming back from jamaica because of their names, she showed them a pic of her and ali them let her go and hold her son for 2hours and have the woman frantically running up and dung the airport a ask where is her son, him born a phili wat a rass if him born deh and him puppa a American go a prison cause him refuse to go war, u no see she it baddd everyone knows Mohamed ALI if dem do that to them….brand name in U.S…what of smaddy unknown
we yardies what don’t have no luck for it seems we shit use church toilet dem say bad luck wi tek u, some a we change we English names to all kind a muslim pronounciation run go a Spanish town quick all now mi cant believe dem stop the greatest boxer pickney what a set a people sgtart kill demself, the Mexican man after being sent back 3 times jump off the bridge last week, an old coulple put exhaust pipe in dem car left a note saying the world is not for them anymore. u see this man a glide like Mr Brown pon the coffin every day pon people TV no peace we cant have all we see is this man a point with him mouth wide open WTF