Mexico has agreed to take ‘unprecedented steps’ to help stem the flow of migrants to the US in order to avoid trade tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump. Mr Trump revealed that a deal had been reached to suspend the tariffs ‘indefinitely’ in a series of tweets.
He had threatened to implement import duties of 5%, rising every month, unless Mexico acted to curb migration. The tariffs were due to come into effect on Monday. The deal, also confirmed in a tweet by Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, comes at the end of three days of negotiations, which saw Washington demand a crackdown on Central American migrants.
Mr Trump caught members of his own party unaware when he announced the proposed tariffs last week. He had declared an emergency on the US-Mexico border in February, saying it was necessary in order to tackle what he claimed was a crisis with thousands of undocumented migrants crossing the frontier.
In a joint declaration released by the US State Department, the two countries said Mexico would take ‘unprecedented’ steps to curb irregular migration and human trafficking. But it seems the US did not get one of its reported key demands that would have required Mexico to take in asylum seekers heading for the US and process their claims on its own soil.
Both countries pledged to ‘strengthen bilateral co-operation’ over border security, including ‘co-ordinated actions’ and information sharing. The declaration added that discussions would continue, and final terms be accepted and announced within 90 days.
Should Mexico’s actions ‘not have the expected results’, the agreement warned that additional measures could be taken, but did not specify what these would be. Mr Ebrard told journalists that the deal was a ‘fair balance’ between both nations.
‘We couldn’t be more pleased with the agreement,’ US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at a separate news conference. It’s still unclear whether it was internal pressure within his party or the measures being offered by Mexico that dissuaded Mr Trump from implementing the plan. Or perhaps simply an appreciation of its potential consequences.
It became apparent during the talks just how intertwined the two neighbouring economies are and many argued that a 5% tax on all Mexican goods would hurt US suppliers and customers too. Furthermore, damaging the already fragile Mexican economy could have pushed it into a full recession and created more migrants heading north in search of work.
Still, some considered the bilateral meetings were useful, in part to recognise that both nations are facing an unprecedented rise in undocumented immigration. The plan to deploy military personnel to Mexico’s southern border may well have helped bring this dispute to an end. However, President Trump has now tied immigration to bilateral trade and could easily do so again in the future should the situation fail to improve.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ran for office vowing to stand up to the US and once said he would not allow Mexico to be Mr Trump’s ‘whipping boy’.
