Update: President Donald Trump tweeted on Jun. 7 that tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the United States are “indefinitely suspended” after an agreement was met with Mexican officials.
President Donald Trump has split congress over a new batch of controversial tariffs against Mexico. President Trump announced over Twitter, “On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.” The tariff is supposed to start at five percent but it could go as high as 25 percent on all goods imported from Mexico. Mexico has sent their foreign minister in order to negotiate with the United States.
In order to keep tariffs from rising, the Mexican government has pledged to deploy 6,000 troops to the Guatemalan border.
So far it looks like the Trump administration is looking to completely overhaul the asylum system in the region. Instead of migrants applying for asylum in the U.S. or Mexico, they would have to apply for asylum in the first country they migrate to after leaving their homeland.
Mexico has repeatedly stated that they will not become a “safe third country.” A safe third country is an agreement with the United States where a country agrees to hold all U.S. bound asylum seekers and requires all refugees to apply for asylum in the country they first arrive in rather than just the United States.
Mexican officials have shown interest in making changes to the asylum system. They want to make a coordinated approach to Central American migrants, but Mexican negotiators are making it clear that they will back out of negotiations if Trump does follow through with his tariffs on June 10.
Republicans on the hill were dissatisfied with Donald Trump’s Threats of tariffs. “There is not much support for tariffs in my conference, that’s for sure,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. “Our hope is that the tariffs will be avoided, and we will not have to answer any hypotheticals.” They are worried that the tariffs would harm The US economy and its consumers.
Many political analysts have condemned president Trump combining trade policy and immigration policy.
After a week of threats, on June 7, President Trump tweeted from Air Force 1 that there is a good chance that Mexico and the U.S. may be able to avoid tariffs. This marks a change from last Friday, when Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in Ireland to reporters “Our position has not changed. The tariffs are going forward as of Monday.” Mexico and the U.S. have been negotiating for many days.