Paying for US-Mexico border wall ‘not negotiable’, says foreign minister Videgaray

Mr Trump has ordered US officials to start working on a wall along the 3,200-kilometre US-Mexico border, which he says is needed to stop illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from crossing over.

A employee packs avocados at a plant in Uruapan, Michoacan State, Mexico, on October 19, 2016. The fruit would be a casualty in any trade war between the United States and Mexico if US president DonalShow more

WASHINGTON // Mexico is willing to talk with the United States to maintain good relations, but paying for president Donald Trump’s border wall is not negotiable, foreign minister Luis Videgaray said.

“We are a proud nation,” Mr Videgaray said. “We simply cannot accept the concept of a neighbour paying for your own wall. There are things that go beyond negotiation; this is about our dignity.”

Holding true to his campaign promise, Mr Trump on Wednesday ordered US officials to begin to design and construct a wall along the 3,200-kilometre US-Mexico border, which he says is needed to stop illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from crossing over.

The US president has insisted that Mexico would bear the cost of construction, estimated at between US$12 billion (Dh44bn) and $15bn. Senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway told CBS News on Friday that, “Mexico should pay for that wall because they get an awful lot from this country.”

Mexico’s leaders have repeatedly said their country will never pay for the wall.

Mr Videgaray was at the White House on Thursday to pave the way for a visit by Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto next week when his team received word of a Trump tweet suggesting that if Mexico were not willing to pay for the wall it should cancel the trip.

Mr Pena Nieto tweeted later that he had informed the White House that he would not attend the meeting.

The White House then floated the idea of a 20 per cent tax on Mexican imports to cover the cost of the wall, but later backtracked and called it just one idea among many.

Mr Videgaray said such a tax would only harm Americans.

“Here in the United States avocados, washing machines, televisions, many things that North American families like to buy and that are expensive, would cost more,” he said. “It would be the American consumer who would be paying.”

Undaunted by the prospect of a trade war with the United States’ southern neighbour, Mr Trump resumed his feud with Mexico on Friday with another belligerent tweet.

“Mexico has taken advantage of the US for long enough,” he said, writing first on his personal Twitter account and then retweeting the message under his presidential handle. “Massive trade deficits & little help on the very weak border must change, NOW!”

*Agencies