Lopez Obrador: US ready to talk over tariff threat 
2019-06-03
Mexico’s president said on Saturday he thinks US officials are prepared to negotiate on US President Donald Trump’s threat to use tariffs as a tool to fight illegal migration across the border.
“There is willingness on the part of US government officials to establish dialogue and reach agreements and compromises,” Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference.
He did not say what gave him the reason to believe this, though he noted that his government had contacted both US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser.
Trump’s surprise announcement last Thursday of new tariffs against a key US trading partner was widely criticized, including by US business groups, border-state politicians and some Republican lawmakers. It sent global markets slumping on Friday.
Trump announced his readiness to levy tariffs on all Mexican imports, beginning at 5 percent starting from June 10 and rising monthly to as high as 25 percent until Mexico substantially reduces the flow of illegal immigration.
“We will be firm and we will defend the dignity of Mexico,” said Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
A State Department spokeswoman said Ebrard and Pompeo spoke by phone on Friday but gave few details.
“We maintain an ongoing dialogue and close cooperation with Mexico on a wide range of issues, including border security efforts,” she said.
Trump, meanwhile, only stepped up his Twitter attacks.
Trump appeared to have no regrets about the move, tweeting on Saturday: “When you are the ‘Piggy Bank’ Nation that foreign countries have been robbing and deceiving for years, the word TARIFF is a beautiful word indeed!”
“Others must treat the United States fairly and with respect — We are no longer the ‘fools’ of the past!” he wrote.
Lopez Obrador said a Mexican delegation, led by Ebrard, will meet with Pompeo in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the tariffs.
“Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades,” Trump said in a tweet.
Lopez Obrador said on Friday that his country was “doing our job” to stem the flow of undocumented migrants — many of them fleeing poverty and violence in Central America — and he warned Trump that new tariffs would be a lose-lose game.
From January to April, Mexican authorities detained 51,607 migrants, a 17 percent increase from the same period in 2018, according to official figures.
On Saturday, Lopez Obrador voiced confidence over the upcoming talks.
“The results are going to be good because there is an atmosphere that is favorable to dialogue both in this country and in the United States,” the Mexican president said, adding that he doubted the tariffs would ultimately take effect.
“It is in everyone’s interest to reach an agreement,” he said.
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants have been crossing into the US — more than 100,000 a month in recent months — causing temporary shelters to overflow and judges unable to keep up with asylum applications.
Trump, who has often demonized the migrants as criminals and gang members, has declared the situation an emergency.
The US tariffs would be devastating for Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its exports to the US.
Analysts said Trump’s shock move jeopardized the chances for ratifying a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, known as the USMCA.
“The move is seen as a further disruption for US manufacturing supply chains, adding to consumer costs, with the uncertainty undermining business investment,” chief economist Scott Brown of Raymond James said on the investment firm’s website.
Trade with Mexico is, in some ways, deeply intertwined with US jobs and manufacturing.
Many products, like cars, appliances and computers, are partially produced on one side of the border and then finished on the other.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the powerful Democrat who has a key say in whether Congress takes up the USMCA in the coming weeks, slammed Trump’s move as “recklessness.”
Even some senior Trump aides opposed his plan, notably Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, NBC reported, citing a source close to the White House.
