During his press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump took the opportunity to state he had spoken with Pena Nieto and that the pair would be working towards a fair relationship in future.
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And on Thursday Union of South American Nations (Unasur) secretary-general Ernesto Samper condemned the plan “to force the Mexican people to pay for the humiliating wall supposed to be built in order to physically separate Mexico from the United States”.
Stressing the importance of the US trade relationship with Mexico, the editorial board said the president could hamper “Mexicans’ progress toward joining their North American neighbors as prosperous free-market democracies”.
Apart from the humanitarian crisis Donald Trump’s proposed wall in Mexico could cause, it may result in a price hike of our favourite fruit – avocados.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government said that President Pena Nieto and Trump had agreed to stop making public statements about the USA leader’s border wall plan and will seek to resolve differences as part of bilateral talks.
Both leaders “agreed to work these differences out as part of a comprehensive discussion on all aspects of the bilateral relationship”, it said. But it added, “The president also agreed for now not to talk publicly about this controversial issue”.
The government there has repeatedly rejected Trump’s insistence that Mexico would pay for it. Nieto stressed that his country “will not pay for any wall”. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto reiterated on Wednesday that Mexico will do no such thing.
“I will not allow the taxpayers or the citizens of the United States to pay the costs of this defective transaction, NAFTA, one that should have been renegotiated many years ago.”, he said.
“I will say that we had a very good call”.
According to the United States Trade Representative, Mexico is the third largest goods trading partner with the United States. Yet their planned meeting next Tuesday is scrapped, following President Pena’s categorical refusal to ever pay for a Border Wall, and President Trump’s tweeted reply there was NOT point to coming unless he conceded.
The tweet came after Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said his talks in Washington DC with a key trade adviser to Trump over the future of bilateral commerce had shown the USA side was receptive to Mexico’s point of view.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says Congress is moving ahead with building the border wall.
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Trump has signed an executive order to begin the constriction of the wall.
