Trump recently threatened Mexico to impose 5% tariffs on imported goods from that country unless the Mexican government did something to stop what Trump has long claimed is an immigration crisis at the border. Now, the president announced his threat is “indefinitely suspended” after the two countries reached an agreement this Friday.
The announcement
Trump just posted his announcement on Twitter, writing:
“I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico. The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended. Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States. Details of the agreement will be released shortly by the State Department. Thank you!”
The announcement came two days before the president’s declared deadline for Mexico to step up its anti-immigration policies. The idea was to set the tariffs of 5% starting Monday, with the possibility of them raising up to 25% unless Mexico delivered on Trump’s wishes.
The agreement
Trump expected Mexico to take more action against families coming through from Central America, so that they wouldn’t even reach the U.S. in search for asylum. The new deal apparently will increase Mexico’s official immigration enforcement efforts, and also gives the U.S. more latitude to deport asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
The Washington Post reported that according to Mexican and American officials, the agreement involves an overhaul of asylum policies for both countries, as now migrants who are officially looking for asylum will be required to ask for it in the first country they enter after leaving their own land, which for the most part means that Mexico or Guatemala will have to take responsibility for processing the requests. If a migrant reached the U.S., he or she could be deported to the appropriate asylum-granting country.
A trade war nobody wanted
Neither Mexico nor the U.S. actually wanted the tariffs to go through. That could have created a catastrophic blow to both economies, a fact which many Americans were aware of, which is why even Republicans and White House aides were pressuring Trump not to go through with his threat, as advisers estimated that the move would have backfired by slowing down America’s economic growth—especially when you combine these new tariffs with Trump’s other ongoing trade war with China.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had even issued a statement from many organizations warning the president that the tariffs “would harm U.S. consumers, workers, farmers and businesses of all sizes across all sectors.” Mexico was ready to impose its own retaliation tariffs should the deal had not been accepted. So it’s fortunate for Trump that Mexico actually responded positively to his threat.
It is yet to be seen whether these measures actually tackle the heart of the problem—but unless conditions significantly improved in Central America, chances are immigration will continue and stopping it will require more than shifting responsibility.
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