Trump calls off tariffs on Mexico and says it will buy U.S. ag products

Trump calls off tariffs on Mexico, says it will buy "large quantities" of U.S. produce

June 09 , 2019

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Trump calls off tariffs on Mexico, says it will buy

U.S. President Donald Trump has called off the implementation of tariffs on all Mexico imports just three days before they were due to be imposed.

The two countries struck a deal on Friday to avert a tariff war, with Mexico agreeing to rapidly expand a controversial asylum program and deploy security forces to stem the flow of illegal Central American migrants.

Trump had threatened to impose 5% import tariffs on all Mexican goods starting on Monday (June 10th) if Mexico did not commit to do more to tighten its borders. An additional 5% duty would have been implemented every month from July 1 until reaching 25%.

In a joint declaration after three days of talks in Washington, both countries said Mexico agreed to immediately expand along the entire border a program that sends migrants seeking asylum in the United States to Mexico while they await adjudication of their cases.

“The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended,” Trump said in a tweet on Friday evening.

On Saturday, Trump then said on Twitter that Mexico had agreed to "immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from U.S. growers".

However, in the State Department's communique issued late Friday -- entitled the U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration -- there was no mention of agricultural trade as part of the agreement.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at a rally in Tijuana near the U.S. border that Mexico should celebrate the “important deal” with the U.S. that removed the threat of tariffs as it was preparing to retaliate. He also didn’t mention agriculture in a speech attended by leading political figures in the country.

Martha Barcena, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., said trade in agricultural goods “will increase dramatically” in the next few months under the right conditions.

“Is trade on agricultural products going to grow? Yes, it is going to grow, and it is going to grow without tariffs and with USMCA ratification,” Barcena said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

In a tweet, Barcena said she didn’t contradict Trump. “I just explained that with no tariffs and the USMCA ratification the trade in agricultural products will increase dramatically. Mexico is already a big buyer of USA agricultural products and this trend will continue,” she said.

Trump's announcement on May 30 that the tariffs would be imposed was met by heavy resistance by many in the U.S. produce industry. It also reportedly sent up prices of avocados, one of the biggest horticultural products Mexico exports to the U.S.