President Trump on Sunday warned that he would revisit previously threatened tariffs on Mexican imports if expected “great cooperation” between the two nations failed.
“There is now going to be great cooperation between Mexico & the USA, something that didn’t exist for decades,” Trump said in a tweet.
“However, if for some unknown reason, there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs – But I don’t believe that will be necessary.”
{mosads}The president made the comments within a series of tweets blasting The New York Times over a report that several key Mexican concessions on border security touted by Trump had been reached in March.
Trump claimed the Times story was “another false report,” saying the U.S. was “not able to get [the concessions] in full” until last Friday’s announcement of the agreement.
The Trump administration had previously vowed to levy 5 percent tariffs on Mexican products starting Monday, with incremental increases to 25 percent, unless the nation addressed migrants on its northern border to the White House’s satisfaction.
In a Saturday rally in the border city of Tijuana, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrado expressed relief a deal had been reached, adding that absent the agreement, Mexico would have been forced to impose retaliatory tariffs.
“[A]s chief representative of the Mexican state I cannot permit that anyone attacks our economy or accept an unjust asymmetry unworthy of our government,” López Obrado said.