Trump threatens tariffs if border is not closed: ‘The trade relationship with Mexico is over’

Donald Trump, former president of the United States who wants to return to the White House, threatened to end trade relations with Mexico unless the border is closed and migrants are not allowed to pass.

While at the Democratic National Convention in the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris obtained the support of her party to be the official candidate for the Presidency, Trump offered a message on Tuesday, August 20, in Michigan, one of the states that will define the presidential election because the citizen preference has not yet been defined.

In this message, he spoke about the relationship with Mexico, and said that he would not have allowed the current situation, as he accused the country of wanting 2 billion dollars to negotiate regarding the migrant crisis that is taking place on the border.

“Mexico is taking advantage of our country. They want billions of dollars just to talk. They would not say that to me. They say ‘we want 2 billion dollars before we even start.’ That would not happen to me. I would say, ‘Oh, really? Really? Well, trade relations with Mexico are over,’” Trump said.

The former president even joked about the possibility that, by stopping trade relations with Mexico, the country would tell him that they would give him the 2 billion dollars so that the United States would agree to negotiate and resume trade relations.

Donald Trump’s new controversy is related to the number of migrants entering the country, and he assured that if he wins the elections he will be in charge of sending people who enter illegally back to their countries.

“I will send all of Kamala’s illegal migrants back to their countries. And this is how she wants to be president? She is the vice president, she could do it (close the border with Mexico). She could have told Mexico: if you are not going to close it, we will not trade with you, we will not make deals with you and we will not let you sell your cars in the United States,” Trump claimed.

Trump’s comments come in the face of the T-MEC negotiations scheduled for 2026, which will be between the government of Claudia Sheinbaum and the government of whoever wins the elections in the United States next November.

In that sense, former President Trump’s comments were a ‘warning’ of what he would do to force Mexico to close the border with the United States and not allow the arrival of migrants, whom he has accused of being responsible for the violence crisis in the country.

Finally, he criticized that Mexico took 32 percent of its automotive industry from the United States and that some of the largest car plants are currently being built in Mexico and all because of China’s responsibility.

“They think they will build these factories and then send their cars to the United States without paying taxes. That is not going to happen. We will put a tariff of 100 to 200 percent. We are not going to allow that to happen,” Trump said.

Trump’s promise to impose tariffs on Mexico even put Tesla’s factory on hold while waiting for the election results, as its CEO, Elon Musk, said that

it would make no sense to invest in building cars in Nuevo Leon if tariffs were to be imposed.

Source: elfinanciero