President Donald Trump attends an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, in Portsmouth, Britain, June 5, 2019.
Chris Jackson | Pool | Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States and Mexico have signed an agreement to avoid tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on Monday.
Trump said that Mexico in return has agreed to take “strong measures” to stop illegal migration from coming through the U.S. southern border.
Last week, Trump had threatened to impose 5% tariffs on all Mexican imports starting June 10 if Mexico didn’t do more to stop illegal immigration. Those tariffs were set to gradually increase to 25% over the coming months if Mexico did not meet the White House’s demands.
The president’s abrupt decision to target Mexico shook markets, which were already facing uncertainty over the escalating trade war between the United States and China.
Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado had quickly signaled that he was willing to cut a deal to avoid tariffs by tightening immigration controls.
Mexican and U.S. officials met in Washington this week to discuss the border and Trump indicated that there was a good chance tariffs would be averted.
In a Twitter post earlier on Friday, Trump said Mexico would need to start purchasing farm and agricultural products “at very high levels.” It wasn’t immediately clear if agriculture was part of the signed agreement.
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