As NAFTA talks loom, Mexico warns Trump of 'breaking point'
World
As NAFTA talks loom, Mexico warns Trump of ‘breaking point’
Mexico’s government on Tuesday said it would fight any measures in a U.S. tax overhaul that break international trade rules, and threatened to review cross-border cooperation on migration and security if upcoming negotiations founder. Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, said the country is watching to see whether President Trump’s plans will include a levy on remittances sent home by Mexican workers or the imposition of tariffs on Mexican goods. Trump has vowed to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — which underpins the bulk of Mexican exports — if he cannot rework it in his country’s favor. Talks on revising the accord are to begin this summer.
These types of measures would obviously be against not just the North American accords, but particularly the rules of the World Trade Organization, and so we would have the legal means to act against them.
Luis Videgaray, Mexico’s foreign minister
Meanwhile, White House negotiators made progress Tuesday on a must-pass spending bill to keep the federal government open. Days ahead of the deadline, Trump sidelined his demand to include U.S. funding for a border wall with Mexico, saying the matter could wait until September. Videgaray said his government considered the building of the wall a “hostile” act and repeated that Mexico would contribute nothing towards it. Trump still maintains Mexico will ultimately pay for the wall. Despite the contentious back and forth, the foreign minister said Mexico regards remittances — which Trump had threatened to go after to pay for the wall — as non-negotiable, saying they could prove a “breaking point” in any dialogue that encompassed other matters.
