Navarro says Trump’s new tariffs ‘may not have to go into effect’ depending on US-Mexico talks

FAN Editor

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro listens to a news conference about a presidential executive order relating to military veterans outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, March 4, 2019.

Leah Millis | Reuters

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said that President Donald Trump‘s new tariffs on Mexico “may not have to go into effect,” depending on the outcome of talks between U.S. and Mexican officials.

Navarro, a hard-line supporter of Trump’s tariffs, said in a CNN interview there were “absolutely” concessions Mexico could make at the meetings, scheduled for later Wednesday at the White House, that would stop the tariffs on 5% of all Mexican imports from going into effect on Monday.

Trump is using the threat of tariffs to force Mexico to stem the flow of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S. border.

The White House advisor outlined three specific areas where Mexico could make changes to stop Trump from slapping tariffs on their goods:

  • Mexico should crack down on asylum seekers, Navarro said.
  • Mexico should strengthen its enforcement of its own southern border with Guatemala, he added.
  • And Mexico should put an end to government corruption at immigration checkpoints in the country.

“That’s it. That’s what we’re looking for,” Navarro concluded.

Trump announced the tariffs Twitter last week, taking the markets and even politicians in his own party by surprise. The tariffs are currently poised to go into effect Monday, and are set to be gradually hiked up to 25% by October.

But Navarro said in the interview Wednesday morning that “we believe that these tariffs may not have to go into effect, precisely because we have the Mexicans’ attention.”

The “number one” issue on Navarro’s list would be for Mexico to “commit to taking all the asylum seekers and then applying Mexican laws, which are much stronger than ours.”

The second concession, he said, would be to get “a strong commitment from the Mexican government to put resources” on its own southern border with Guatemala. Navarro explained that the roughly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico is “very hard to police,” while the 150-mile Mexico-Guatemala border is not only much narrower and “better yet, it has natural and artificial choke points where it is really easy to police.”

The last demand Navarro says the U.S. wants from Mexico is to put an end to corruption at checkpoints. “Those checkpoints are designed to stop the flood, but instead it’s … the corruption, the government officials who make money off this human trafficking,” Navarro said.

“That has to stop.”

Navarro said his three proposed concessions were already made “very, very clear” by a Trump administration official “the first day” that the tariffs were announced. But acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had told reporters the day Trump announced the tariffs that “We did not set a specific percentage, did not set a specific number” for Mexico to reduce immigration levels. “It’s a very fluid situation,” Mulvaney said.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.

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