The Mexican government reportedly deployed their military to its southern border this week; offering major immigration concessions to the Trump administration to avoid proposed tariffs scheduled to take effect Monday.
“With just days to go until the Trump administration is set to impose punishing tariffs on Mexico unless the country halts the unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border, numerous signs that Mexico would capitulate emerged Thursday — but it remained unclear Friday morning whether their efforts would satisfy the White House,” reports Fox News.
“Reports in the evening indicated that Mexico’s negotiators with Washington have offered to immediately deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala. Additionally, Mexico has reportedly agreed to a major overhaul of reasonable asylum protocols, which would require asylum applicants to seek permanent refuge in the first country they arrive in after fleeing their home countries,” adds the article.
Mexican authorities prevented an additional ‘migrant caravan’ originating in Central America from entering its borders this week; a gesture that could help future trade talks with the Trump administration.
“Authorities blocked a new caravan of Central American migrants Wednesday after they entered Mexico bound for the United States, as the government scrambled to dodge President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs over undocumented immigration,” reports Yahoo News.
“Soldiers and police forced hundreds of migrants in the group — which was mostly from Honduras — to a halt in the southern town of Metapa de Dominguez, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the Mexican-Guatemalan border,” adds the report.
The Trump administration is prepared to impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican products on Monday should their government fail to crackdown on illegal immigration flowing towards the United States.
The escalating crisis at the border took a turn for the worse in May 2019, with new statistics showing federal agents detained more than 55,000 children attempting to illegally enter the United States.
“The government set another grim record in May with more than 55,000 children nabbed by Border Patrol agents along the southwest border,” reports the Washington Times. “They were part of more than 130,000 unauthorized migrants Border Patrol agents and officers at the ports of entry encountered last month, up from about 109,000 in April and far higher than the 51,000 or so nabbed in May 2018.”
AMERICA FIRST: Trump SLAMS EU, Canada, Mexico with STEEL Tariffs
President Trump announced Thursday his plans to levy hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum on key US allies, including the European Union, Canada, and Mexico; making good on a signature campaign promise to help shield American-made products from foreign goods.
Despite the initial plan to exempt North American nations from the tariffs, the administration unveiled the new guidelines after failing to win specific trade deals with both Canada and Mexico.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the new taxes will be a 25% surcharge on steel and 10% on aluminum; adding the tariffs could be removed in future talks while renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
“The European Union has already notified the World Trade Organization of plans to levy duties on $7.1 billion worth of U.S. exports in response, with the aim of collecting $1.6 billion in tariff revenue,” writes Politico.
“We continue to be quite willing and indeed eager to have further discussions,” Ross added.
ART OF THE DEAL: US-Mexico Agreement ‘SQUEEZES’ Trudeau in Future Trade Talks
President Trump terminated the two-decade old NAFTA trade deal Monday; unveiling a new pact with Mexico and putting increased pressure on Canada to yield to American demands in upcoming negotiations.
The Commander-in-Chief announced the new US-Mexico Trade Agreement from the Oval Office Monday afternoon, hailing the bilateral pact as “one of the largest” deals in history.
The move places new pressure on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has threatened a potential “trade war” with President Trump after he unleashed a crippling round of sanctions against foreign-produced steel.
Pres. Trump discusses Canada while announcing US-Mexico trade agreement:
“Frankly, the easiest thing we could do is tariff their cars coming in … I think we’ll give them a chance to probably have a separate deal. We could have a separate deal or we could put it in to this deal” pic.twitter.com/GfeJ26Rmq6
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 27, 2018
“I think with Canada, frankly, the easiest we can do is to tariff their cars coming in. It’s a tremendous amount of money and it’s a very simple negotiation. It could end in one day and we take in a lot of money the following day,” Trump said.
“Canada plans to continue to negotiate, but would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said. Trump said he would talk to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau soon,” writes Reuters.
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