US, Mexico to begin talks on tariffs, migrants

MEXICO CITY - Fighting to stave off punitive tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, a senior Mexican delegation is set to begin high-level talks on Monday in Washington, where it will be pushed to do more to hold back Central American migrants.

Trump had said he will apply tariffs of 5 percent on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 and increase the rate in coming months to 25 percent if Mexico does not substantially halt illegal immigration across the US-Mexican border, which is at a decade high this year.

Trump's announcement came the same day that Mexico declared it would begin the process of ratifying the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Global equities tumbled after the unexpected threat against the US biggest trade partner. Many are questioning the legality of mixing immigration policy goals with trade retaliation, and US business groups are already considering legal action against the proposed tariff, arguing that the countries both produce for each other and together.

"Almost everyone was caught flatfooted," said Antonio Ortiz-Mena, an international trade consultant based in Washington with the Albright Stonebridge Group. He represented Mexico as part of the team that negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement in the early 1990s.

Ortiz-Mena said he spent much of the weekend on phone calls and crafting strategies to advise clients in the US-Mexico supply chain on how to navigate the situation. His advice to Mexican officials has been to stay calm and show good faith by ratifying the trade deal.

"We're neighbors. We're not going anywhere," Ortiz-Mena said.

Mexico overtook Canada to become the top trade partner for the US in April.

Mexico's message has been consistently friendly. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico won't panic, signing off on a Thursday letter to Trump as "your friend" and repeating that his country doesn't want this confrontation, much less a trade war.

Mexican Economy Minister Graciela Marquez said she will meet with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in Washington on Monday. Ebrard said a delegation he is leading will hold talks on Wednesday with one headed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Ebrard said Mexican Agriculture Minister Victor Manuel Villalobos also is to meet with his US counterpart, Sonny Perdue, as tariffs would "severely" affect the US agricultural sector. The objective is for the US to avoid "shooting itself in the foot", Ebrard said.

On the immigrants issue, US Department of Homeland Security's acting secretary, Kevin McA-leenan, said on Sunday that Mexico should deploy more personnel to interdict illegal migrants along a 241-km stretch of border with Guatemala.

McAleenan also said Mexico should bolster its own immigration screenings along its southern border, crack down on networks transporting migrants and enable more migrants to wait in Mexico while they apply for asylum in the US.

Reuters - AP

(China Daily 06/04/2019 page12)