Trump touts deal with Mexico to avert tariffs

Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump touted Saturday his last-minute deal averting tariffs on Mexico, a plan economists warned would have been disastrous for both countries, saying the agreement will be a big success if America’s southern neighbor cracks down on illegal immigration as promised.

With Trump ready to slap five percent tariffs on all Mexican goods starting Monday, senior officials announced an agreement Friday night after three days of intense negotiations at the State Department.

Under the deal, Mexico agreed to expand its policy of taking back migrants from violence-riven Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as the United States processes their asylum claims. 

Mexico will also use its new National Guard nationwide to crack down on illegal migration, in particular along its southern border with Guatemala, a gateway for poor Central Americans hoping to reach the US.

In turn, Mexico managed to avoid a proposal it had continually rejected — that it process asylum claims on its own soil before migrants reach the United States.

“Mexico will try very hard, and if they do that, this will be a very successful agreement for both the United States and Mexico!” Trump tweeted early Saturday.

Later, he added: “Everyone very excited about the new deal with Mexico!”

Trump announced the deal on Twitter shortly after returning from a trip to Europe.

For many, it was vintage Trump behavior: trigger a crisis and let it simmer for a while, then declare it resolved and take credit.

In Mexico, some advocacy groups criticized the deal, saying Mexico would be militarizing its border with Guatemala to detain innocent women and children when the real problem — grinding poverty and desperation fueling the exodus north — goes unaddressed.

“I think deploying the National Guard on the border will change nothing. Borders are borders,” said Olguita Sanchez, who runs a shelter in southern Chiapas state. “People will keep leaving. This is not going to stop them.”

Trump, she insisted, “is pressing Mexico but he should be pressing the governments of Honduras and El Salvador, who do nothing for their people.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who had planned to head Saturday to the border city of Tijuana to show solidarity ahead of the tariffs, said that his trip would now be to celebrate. 

– Skirting economic blow –

Trump, who ran for president pushing a tough line on immigration that included denouncing some  undocumented Mexicans as rapists, had vowed to raise tariffs as high as 25 percent unless Mexico — which exports $350 billion in goods each year to the United States — takes further action against migrants.

The tariffs would have clobbered Mexico’s economy, which is integrated with the United States and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement, with experts warning of a recession and the Fitch rating service already downgrading Mexico’s credit rating.

Economists also warned the tariffs would hurt US companies that have set up complex supply chains across the borders with Mexico and Canada, leading to higher prices for US consumers for everything from tequila to refrigerators as importers pass along the cost of tariffs.

The tariffs also drew unusually strong opposition from Trump’s fellow Republicans, especially lawmakers from farm states who worried about losing their second largest international market.

– ‘Unprecedented steps’  –

Mexico pledged in a joint statement to take “unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration,” saying the two governments would “work together to immediately implement a durable solution.”

Mexico said it would deploy National Guard troops throughout the country, “giving priority to its southern border” with Guatemala. It will also target human smuggling and trafficking groups.

The United States, making official a policy that has triggered opposition in both countries, said it would systematically send back asylum seekers who cross the border, with Mexico offering them jobs, health care and education.

Thousands of asylum seekers have already been sent back, prompting criticism from human rights campaigners that the migrants will lack due process and face new danger in Mexican border cities such as Ciudad Juarez.

Trump, who has declared a crisis at the border and earlier deployed  troops, says that asylum seekers can too easily slip into the population while on US soil.

In the past, most undocumented immigrants were men seeking work, but a majority of recent arrivals are families or unaccompanied children fleeing violence.

The number of migrants detained or blocked at the border surged to 144,000 in May, triple the level a year earlier.

– ‘Arsonist’ and fireman –  

Democrats denounced Trump for taking the United States and Mexico to the brink.

“What we see is yet another example of him trying to be both the arsonist who created this problem… and the firefighter who wants credit for addressing it,” said Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who represented the Texas border city of El Paso in Congress.