US President Donald Trump on Thursday abandoned plans to immediately seal the Mexico border, instead setting a deadline to stop migrants and drugs entering the US.
“We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop, or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products — in particular cars. The whole ballgame is cars,” Trump told reporters.
The announcement is a big walk-back for Trump, who last week tweeted that he would close the border or large swathes of it this week unless Mexico immediately halted “ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States.”
Trump said then that he was “not kidding around,” and his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said in a television interview on Sunday that it would take “something dramatic” for Trump not to close down the crossings.
‘Important to keep migration and trade separate’
Mexico’s Economy Minister Graciela Marquez Colin responed to Trump’s announcement and said the issue of illegal immigration should not be put alongside the two countries’ trade relationship.
“For the Mexican government, it is very important to keep migration issues and trade issues separate,” Economy Minister Graciela Marquez Colin told a press conference.
Read more: In Mexico, migrants must choose between bad and worse
Trump made stopping illegal immigration a centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign, pledging to build a wall on the border to stop migrants.
When Congress refused to give him the money to pay for the wall, he declared a national emergency to divert funds from other projects.
The US and Mexico trade about $1.7 billion (€1.5 billion) in goods daily, according to the US Chamber of Commerce, which had said closing the border would be “an unmitigated economic debacle” that would threaten 5 million American jobs.
Mexican exports look to the sky
Mexican exporters said this week that they were looking into transporting their goods to the US by air freight to avoid a line of trucks stretching eight kilometers (5 miles) at the border as a result of the Trump administration moving federal agents away from customs checks to immigration duties.
Auto parts and medical equipment makers were among the Mexican companies considering the more expensive air cargo to avoid incurring penalties for late delivery to US clients or factory closures, Luis Aguirre, the president of Mexico’s manufacturing industry chamber INDEX, said late on Wednesday.
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The ‘huge’ walls of the world
“We are going to build a wall”
The border wall with Mexico was the signature promise of now President Donald Trump’s election campaign, standing out from the storm of controversial and often contradictory campaign statements. Once elected, Trump quickly set the wheels in motion by ordering the construction to start. Experiences from around the world, however, show that massive barriers do not come easy – or cheap.
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The ‘huge’ walls of the world
“…and Mexico is going to pay for it.”
The so-called “Tortilla Wall” already spans some 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of the US-Mexico border. Experts believe that the US would need to pay between $15 billion and $25 billion in order to fully wall-off the entire southern frontier. US President Trump has said it would cost less and that Mexico would foot the bill.
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The ‘huge’ walls of the world
Wall of fear in Jerusalem
Israel started building its own controversial barrier in 2002, with construction continuing to this day. The structure is expected to stretch at least 650 kilometers (403 miles) across the Holy Land, most of it consisting of an electric wire fence. Observers believe its cost has already topped $2.6 billion (2.4 billion euros), with maintenance costs reaching $260 million per year.
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The ‘huge’ walls of the world
The symbol of divided city
The Berlin Wall spanned 155 kilometers (91 miles) before its demolition in 1991. Unlike the many other walls across the world, the barrier was built by East Germany to keep the would-be emigrants inside the country. It cost about $25 million to build in 1961, equivalent to $200 million (almost 186.5 million euros) in present-day money.
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The ‘huge’ walls of the world
The Korean DMZ – the most fortified border in the world
Capitalist South Korea and its Communist northern neighbor are divided by barbed wire and watchtowers, as well as around 1 million landmines. Following the 1953 truce, both Pyongyang and Seoul agreed to pull their troops 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) away inland, creating a demilitarized zone along the border that stretches 248 kilometers (154 miles).
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The ‘huge’ walls of the world
‘Peace lines’ run through Belfast
A total of 48 “peace lines” separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in Belfast, a legacy of centuries-long religious war. The barriers including high brick walls, concrete structures, barb wire and metal bars. These barricades include gates to allow for circulation of people and traffic, but the gates close after nightfall.
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law/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/trump-threatens-tariffs-on-mexican-cars-in-border-dispute/a-48208594?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf