Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports

On Thursday President Trump announced he plans to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods entering from Mexico unless it stops the flow of illegal immigration to the United States.

The White House plans to begin levying the import penalties on June 10 and ratchet the penalties higher if the migrant flow isn’t halted. Trump said he would remove the tariffs only if all illegal migration across the border ceased, though other White House officials said they would be looking only for Mexico to take major action.

After the 5 percent tariffs are imposed on June 10, the White House said it would increase the penalties to 10 percent on July 1 and then an additional 5 percent on the first day of each month for three months. The tariffs would stay at 25 percent “until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory,” a statement by the president said.

….at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019

Earlier Thursday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer sent a letter to congressional leaders to begin the ratification process, and López Obrador formally asked Mexico’s Senate to ratify the deal. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence was in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, to promote the agreement on Thursday.

But in a briefing for reporters, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said the tariffs wouldn’t affect the USMCA deal.

“The two are absolutely not linked,” he said, adding: “These are not tariffs as part of a trade dispute. These are tariffs as part of an immigration problem.”

Asked whether Trump understood that tariffs are paid by importers, not exporters — in this case, by Americans, not Mexicans — Mulvaney said: “Americans are paying for this right now.

“Illegal immigration comes at a cost,” he said. “The American taxpayer is paying for what’s going on at the border.”

At a news conference Thursday night, Jésus Seade, Mexico’s undersecrtetary for foreign relations and the country’s chief trade negotiator, called Trump’s announcement “disastrous,” the newspaper El Universal reported. “If it happens, we must respond energetically.”