US, Mexico Trade Officials Fail to Strike Deal on Tariffs, Immigration - Reports

Mexican representatives met with senior Trump administration officials in the White House on Wednesday to attempt to convince Washington to forgo plans to impose a 5 per cent tariff on Mexican goods to force the Mexican government to stop the flow of migrants from Central America into the United States.

A meeting between high-level US and Mexican officials on immigration and trade concluded on Wednesday without a deal, NBC News reported, citing a senior administration official.
US President Donald Trump said in a Wednesday evening Tweet from Ireland that progress had been made, "but not nearly enough." He noted that if no agreement is reached, the first tariff will enter force on Monday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also hold a meeting on Wednesday with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, after a larger meeting at the White House, a State Department official said, cited by Reuters.

The bilateral talks come days before the 5 per cent tariffs on all Mexican imports are set to come into force. The tariffs were slated to take effect on 10 June, as announced earlier by Trump, who then noted that the last-minute talks were unlikely to stop the tariffs from going into effect.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported, citing Mexican government sources, that Mexico would not accept "safe third country status" which would require Central American asylum claimants to seek refuge in Mexico instead of the United States.

On Tuesday the Mexican ministries of foreign affairs, economy and agriculture issues a joint statement, in which they said that "the damages done by tariffs to the two complementary economies" only in agriculture at $117 million a month. The Economy Ministry added that the tariffs would affect all US states and "impact binational value chains, as well as consumers and the jobs created from trade with Mexico".An increasing number of migrants from Central America have been arriving to the US border with Mexico in recent months. Trump has called the surge of arrivals a crisis and declared a national emergency in February to secure funds to build a border wall.

The Trump administration has been making efforts to stop illegal migration into the United States, even threatening to close the southern US border.