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Casablanca – US President Donald Trump reportedly intends to impose a 20 percent import tax on Mexican imports to the US in order to raise funds to build his vowed wall.
The tension between the US and Mexico has yet again surfaced after President Trump’s restated his ambition to force Mexico to build an 8-mile long wall separating the two countries, which Trump believes will solve the problem of illegal migration in the US.
The Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto, made a televised statement announcing clearly that “Mexico will not pay for the wall,” noting that his country “does not believe in walls”. Earlier today, the Mexican President cancelled a meeting with his American counterpart that had been scheduled for next week.
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, unveiled that the US President Trump held a private meeting with congressional republicans and discussed a plan to impose a 20 percent tax on all imports coming from Mexico to the US.
If confirmed, this tax would be the beginning of a tax overhaul that Trump plans to carry out on all imports. Spicer explained that this raise in tax would apply to Mexico first but would later extend to the all imports to the US.
The press secretary added that the 20 percent tax on annual returns, which hit USD 296 billion in 2015, would raise USD 10 billion a year. This amount exceeds the estimated cost of USD 8 billion for the wall.
This plan represents a serious step that carries radical implications for the future of economic relations between the two countries and the wide range of firms that benefit from them. Spicer stated that the tax on imports already exists in 160 countries.
