President Donald Trump is starting the week with additional Mexico tariff threats after revealing that a portion of the recently signed migration pact needs ratification by Mexican lawmakers.
"We have fully signed and documented another very important part of the Immigration and Security deal with Mexico, one that the U.S. has been asking about getting for many years. It will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico's Legislative body," Trump tweeted on Monday. "We do not anticipate a problem with the vote but, if for any reason the approval is not forthcoming, tariffs will be reinstated."
The stakes are high for the global auto industry with its massive investments in Mexico, China and Europe. Billions of dollars in import and export activities across the world could be impacted by new U.S. tariffs.
Trump's Monday morning tweets follow his announcement last week that the United States and Mexico reached a signed migration agreement. In light of the signed migration pact, Trump tweeted late Friday that the tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended. The president provided limited details on the signed agreement between the two countries.
Last month, Trump threatened a planned 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports to the U.S. that the president had said could increase to 25 percent by October. His May 30 tariff announcement prompted distress for the auto industry, already struggling to sustain profits amid slowing U.S. sales.
The agreement would accelerate a program known as the Migration Protection Protocols, which sends people seeking asylum in the United States to wait in Mexico as their cases are processed, according to Reuters. The deal would also send the Mexico National Guard to its own southern border, where many Central Americans enter Mexico, Reuters said.
