The top trade adviser to President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the threatened tariffs against Mexico “may not have to go into effect” if the country can demonstrate it’s taking steps to halt the flow of undocumented migrants across the southern US border.
Peter Navarro’s comments to CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “Newsroom” came hours ahead of a meeting between top US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, and Mexico’s foreign minister to discuss the tariffs and the immigration issue.
“Right now, the Mexican government makes money off illegal immigration. After the tariffs are put in place, the Mexican government will bear a cost of that. We believe that these tariffs may not have to go into effect precisely because we have the Mexicans’ attention,” Navarro said. “Vice President Pence will be meeting with them today, Secretary of State Pompeo and (US Trade Representative) Robert Lighthizer. I think let’s stay calm and look at the chess board here.”
Navarro’s comments come amid warnings from Senate Republicans that they will not support the Mexico tariffs, raising the possibility of a rebuke to the President over the surprise move announced last week.
Trump said on Tuesday that he was inclined to go ahead with the levies, set to go into effect starting next week.
“We’re going to see if we can do something. But I think it’s more likely that the tariffs go on and we’ll probably be talking during the time that the tariffs are on, and they’re going to be paid,” Trump said during a news conference alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May.
In the interview with Sciutto, Navarro outlined three demands he wants Mexico to meet in order to prevent a 5% tariff on Mexican imports to the US from going into effect next week.
“They can commit to taking all the asylum seekers and then applying Mexican laws, which are much stronger than ours,” Navarro said. “That’s number one on my list.”
Navarro said he wants to see “a strong commitment from the Mexican government” to put resources on the country’s southern border, where he said it was much easier to control the flow of immigrants coming up from Central American countries. He added that America was likely to “help (Mexico) in any way possible,” with that effort.
The trade adviser said the third thing he wants to see Mexico do is stop the “corruption” he says exists in the country that makes it hard for Mexico to manage checkpoints that migrants pass through before arriving at the US border.
