U.S. President Donald Trump continued his disagreement with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Nieto on Friday over his insistence that Mexico would pay for the building of the 3,200-kilometres long.U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Nieto on Thursday cancelled a meeting with Trump that had been set for next week after renewed tensions over Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border.
“Mexico has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough. Massive trade deficits and little help on the very weak border must change, NOW!” Trump tweeted on Friday.
Nieto announced the cancellation of the meeting after Trump had tweeted that it would be better to skip the meeting if Nieto continued to insist that Mexico would not pay for the wall, something the Mexican leader had insisted till Wednesday.
“If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting,” Trump had tweeted.
“The U.S. has a 60 billion dollars trade deficit with Mexico.
“It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost,” Trump added in his tweets.
Trump had later told a retreat of Republican Congress that he and the Mexican president had mutually agreed to scrap their planned get together, and he repeated his position that Mexico would fund the wall.
“Unless Mexico will treat the U.S. fairly, with respect, such a meeting is fruitless, and I want to go a different route. I have no choice.”
“Border security is a serious, serious issue and a national problem. Most illegal immigration is coming from our Southern border,” Trump said.
In his video address, Nieto also said he had ordered government agencies to step up protection for immigrants.
“Mexico does not believe in walls. I’ve said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall.
“I’ve asked for the minister of Foreign Relations to re-enforce protection measures to our citizens,” he said.
He added that the 50 Mexican consulates in the U.S. would be used to defend the rights of immigrants in the country and issued a call to action to legislators and civic organisations to help immigrants.
“Neither confrontation nor submission. Dialogue is the solution,” Nieto said.
Trump had suggested some of the 25 billion dollars in annual remittances that migrants return home to Mexico would be retained to pay for the border wall. (NAN)