President Donald Trump threatened to make Mexican immigration control a condition of a new NAFTA agreement on Monday, saying the southern U.S. neighbour must stop illegal immigrants from getting into the United States.
“Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post. “Our Country cannot accept what is happening!”
Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S. We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA Agreement. Our Country cannot accept what is happening! Also, we must get Wall funding fast.
—@realDonaldTrump
Trump recently has said talks on modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were going well and it was unclear whether he would follow through on linking the new trade pact with Mexico and Canada to immigration.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, speaking at the Hanover trade fair in Germany on Monday, said he hoped for agreement soon on a reworked NAFTA, which includes Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Nieto said differences between the parties could be overcome to revamp the 24-year-old accord, which underpins some $1.5 trillion in annual trilateral trade.
On Friday, Canada and Mexico on Friday said good progress had been made in talks with the United States and that ministers would meet again on Tuesday as they push to wrap up a deal.