Mexico leader responds to Trump claim she agreed to stop migration

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to make clear particulars of a dialog she had with US President-elect Donald Trump, after the 2 leaders supplied differing accounts of the decision.

Following Wednesday’s name, Trump stated Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border”.

This prompted Sheinbaum to say she had merely reiterated Mexico’s place, which she stated was “not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and people”.

The name adopted Trump’s announcement on Monday that, upon taking workplace in January, he would slap an across-the-board tariff of 25% on Mexico and Canada, and a ten% tariff on China.

He stated the import duties on Mexico and Canada would solely be eliminated as soon as unlawful immigration and drug trafficking to the US had stopped.

The announcement was initially met with combative language from President Sheinbaum, who vowed earlier on Wednesday to retaliate if the US triggered a commerce battle.

“If there are US tariffs, Mexico would also raise tariffs,” she stated of the proposed duties, which seem to breach the USMCA commerce deal that Trump himself struck in 2018 throughout his first presidency between the US, Mexico and Canada.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Mexican president stated she didn’t particularly focus on tariffs within the telephone name with Trump however that that they had addressed immigration and fentanyl trafficking – the explanations Trump had named for imposing the tariffs within the first place.

She stated she had reassured him {that a} migrant caravan he had expressed concern about was “not going to reach the [northern] Mexican frontier” with the US however she pressured that “it has never been our plan to close the border with the US”.

Sheinbaum insisted that the dialog had been “very amiable” and that that they had agreed they’d “continue with our talks”.

In what appeared an altogether extra conciliatory tone in comparison with her preliminary response to Trump’s import tax announcement, she additionally insisted there was now “no possibility of a tariff war” between Mexico and the US.

The circulation of migrants from Mexico within the US has lengthy overshadowed relations between the 2 neighbours and have become a defining concern within the 2024 White House election race that culminated in Trump’s resounding victory this month.

Under US diplomatic strain, Mexico has been conducting its largest ever migrant crackdown, bussing and flying non-Mexican migrants to the nation’s south, removed from the US border.

But Trump campaigned on a promise to seal the US-Mexico border and his menace to impose 25% tariffs was seen as an try to pressure Mexico into doing extra to cease the migrants from reaching the US southern border.

The Mexican authorities has in flip demanded that the US take motion to cease the circulation of weapons being smuggled from the US into Mexico.

Sheinbaum advised reporters on Thursday that she would increase the difficulty of weapons with Trump “in due time”.