US unveils border tax plan as Mexican president calls off meeting with Trump
The Trump administration is stoking up its row with Mexico, America’s third-biggest trading partner, by proposing a 20% tax on imports from Mexico
Washington/Mexico City — Hours after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled his first meeting with President Donald Trump the US administration mooted a 20% tax on imports from Mexico to pay for a wall along the southern US border. The tax plan was first put by White House press secretary Sean Spicer to reporters on Air Force One as Trump returned from a congressional Republican retreat in Philadelphia. "When you look at the plan that’s taking shape now, using comprehensive tax reform as a means to tax imports from countries that we have a trade deficit from, like Mexico, if you tax that $50bn at 20% of imports," Spicer said on the president’s plane. By doing that we can do $10bn a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone," he said. Spicer did not say how such a tax would work or affect US consumers and companies. Asked if the tax could be applied to other countries, Spicer said the administration was "focused on Mexico right now". Later, Spicer sum...
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