MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Top Mexican and U.S. officials on Sunday prepared for crunch talks next week aimed at averting a major trade clash after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to impose punitive tariffs on all Mexican goods in an intensifying dispute over migration.
Mexico’s Economy Minister Graciela Marquez said on Sunday she would meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in Washington on Monday, as the two governments begin holding talks to resolve the issue in the U.S. capital in the coming week.
Trump says he will apply tariffs of 5% on Mexican goods on June 10 if Mexico does not halt the flow of illegal immigration, largely from Central America, across the U.S.-Mexican border.
The U.S. president lashed out again on Twitter on Sunday morning, calling Mexico an “abuser of the United States, taking but never giving,” and repeating his tariff threats.
The tariffs will gradually rise to 25% if Mexico does not comply with Trump’s demands. That threatens major economic damage to Mexico, which sends about 80% of its exports to the United States.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday hinted his government could agree to tighten migration controls to defuse Trump’s threat, and said he expected “good results” from the talks in Washington next week.
Speaking on Sunday afternoon at an event to mark the start of construction on an oil refinery in southern Mexico, Lopez Obrador did not refer directly to the trade dispute, but said he wanted to send a “memorandum” to the American people.
“The Mexican government is a friend of the United States government. The
