Trump slams Mexico as leader cancels US trip over border wall

New US president decides to impose 20% tax on imports from Mexico

MEXICO CITY: Tensions between Donald Trump and Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto over the US leader's vow to make Mexico fund a new wall on the neighbours' border boiled over Thursday with the cancellation of talks in Washington set for next week.

Trump had been scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House on Tuesday, for their first meeting since the inauguration. Instead, the Republican president is managing a foreign policy spat during his first week in office.

The escalating war of words over who would pay for the proposed border wall -- a central pledge made by Trump during his successful presidential campaign -- hit the breaking point on Thursday.

"If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump said on Twitter in the morning.

Pena Nieto didn't take long to rise to the challenge.

"We informed the White House this morning that I will not attend the working meeting scheduled for next Tuesday" with Trump in Washington, the Mexican leader responded on Twitter.

"Mexico reiterates its willingness to work with the United States to reach agreements in both nations' interests."

Hours later, Trump told Republican lawmakers at a retreat in Philadelphia that the cancellation was by mutual agreement.

"Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route. I have no choice," he said.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer earlier told reporters that the "lines of communications" would remain open and Washington hoped to "schedule something in the future."

The initial salvos between the two presidents came Wednesday, when Trump ordered officials to begin to "plan, design and construct a physical wall" along the 3,200-kilometre US-Mexico border.

Stemming immigration was a central plank of Trump's election campaign, but he has struggled to articulate how the wall will be paid for, beyond saying "Mexico will pay."

Republican leaders have announced they would try to carve out $12-15 billion worth of US taxpayers' money for the project. Trump also ordered a survey of the border to be completed within 180 days.

Much of the land needed to build the wall would have to be seized from private citizens in Texas, the state of Texas or tribal authorities.

That could result in long court battles and hefty expropriation payments.

Meanwhile, President Trump has decided that he will impose a 20 per cent tax on imports from Mexico and as part of a larger comprehensive tax reform plan said the White House, CNN reported on Thursday.

The White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the comprehensive tax reform package Trump and Republicans are looking to put together will include taxing imports from other countries, like Mexico.

Spicer said, “By doing it that we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. That’s really going to provide the funding.”

Trump's wall order had put Pena Nieto under fierce domestic pressure to hit back, and hit back the Mexican leader did in a video message to the nation late Wednesday.

"I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us," Pena Nieto said.

"I have said it time and again: Mexico will not pay for any wall," he added.

Trump also took to Twitter on Thursday to gripe about the trade gap between Mexico and the United States.

"The US has a $60 billion trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of Nafta with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost," he said.

Refugee interviews halted

The US Department of Homeland Security has temporarily halted trips by staff to interview refugees abroad as it prepares for a likely shakeup of refugee policy by President Donald Trump, two sources with knowledge of the decision said on Thursday.

The decision effectively amounts to a pause in future refugee admissions, given that the interviews are a crucial step in an often years-long process.

The DHS leadership's decision to halt the interview trips was communicated to those involved in the US refugee admission process, one of the sources said.  White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday that Trump could sign several executive orders on Friday, but that the nature of those had not been decided yet.

CIA torture

US defence chief James Mattis still favours the current rules banning the use of torture in prisoner interrogations, the Pentagon said, the day after President Donald Trump reaffirmed his belief it ‘absolutely’ works.

In a written response to questions during his confirmation hearing, Mattis said he supported using the US Army Field Manual, which forbids torture, as the single standard for military interrogations.

"That thinking has not changed," Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said. "His commitment to upholding the Geneva convention, the law of armed conflicts, international law and US – that remains the same."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2017.