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Mexico holds off Trump's fire
![Mexico holds off Trump's fire]()
President Donald Trump hinted at additional measures between the U.S. and Mexico, a day after he vowed that Mexico would soon make “large” agricultural purchases from the U.S. as part of a deal on border security and illegal immigration that allowed Mexico to avoid U.S. tariffs. Mexico holds off Trump's fire
Andrés Manuel López Obrador tells crowd in Tijuana he is raising an ‘open hand’, not a closed fist, to Donald Trump.
As critics continued to suggest the U.S. deal with Mexico didn’t accomplish much, President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning there is more to the agreement than meets the eye.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, travelled to the border city of Tijuana to rally the country in “defence of national dignity”, but to also reaffirm friendship with the US people – barely a day after the US cancelled the threat of tariffs.
López Obrador called the rally, which was convened prior to the tariffs being cancelled, a “celebration” of both countries brokering a deal.
President Trump had threatened to impose 5% tariffs from Monday on all Mexican goods, if Mexico did not agree new measures to stem migration from Central America.
At the rally in Tijunana, López Obrador said: “We’re celebrating yesterday’s important agreement because it was putting us in a very difficult situation with these tariffs because we would have had to impose the same measures on US products.”
Mexico avoided the most extreme immigration concession sought by U.S. President Donald Trump in the deal reached to fend off threatened tariffs, but it is left even weaker than before in the face of potential new pressure from Trump as he formally kicks off his re-election campaign this month.
Under the deal reached on Friday, Mexico agreed to use a large part of its newly formed National Guard to hold back immigrants crossing from Guatemala, and to take in possibly tens of thousands of people seeking asylum in the United States while their cases are adjudicated.
Led by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, negotiators in Washington resisted Trump’s core demand that Mexico be declared a safe third country, a classification that would oblige Central Americans crossing through Mexico to seek safe haven there, not the United States.
President Donald Trump hinted at additional measures between the U.S. and Mexico, a day after he vowed that Mexico would soon make “large” agricultural purchases from the U.S. as part of a deal on border security and illegal immigration that allowed Mexico to avoid U.S. tariffs.
“Some things not mentioned in yesterday’s press release, one in particular, were agreed on. That will be announced at the appropriate time,” Trump said Sunday in a series of four tweets about Mexico, the media and other matters.
