Mexico City - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday called off a meeting
with Donald Trump as tensions over the US leader's vow to make Mexico
fund a new wall on the neighbors' border boiled over.
Trump had
been scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House next week, for
their first meeting since the inauguration. Instead, the Republican
president is facing a foreign policy spat during his first week in the
Oval Office.
But their escalating war of words over who would fund
the proposed border wall - a central pledge made by Trump during his
successful presidential campaign - escalated to 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.
The bareknuckle early-morning
tweet - already a signature Trump move - shocked diplomats, but was in
keeping with the mogul's hardball approach to negotiations and is
likely to delight his supporters.
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."
White
House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that the "lines of
communications" would remain open and Washington hoped to "schedule
something in the future."
'Mexico will not pay for any wall'
The
first salvos between the two presidents came on Wednesday, when Trump
ordered officials to begin to "plan, design and construct a physical
wall" along the 3 200km 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 announced on Thursday they would try to carve out $12-15bn worth of US taxpayers' money for the project.
Trump's
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 on 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.
Around
two in three Mexicans have a favourable opinion of the United States,
according to Pew surveys, but anti-American and anti-Trump sentiment is
not uncommon.
Pena Nieto saw his own approval rating slide late
last year, after he hosted Trump - then still a White House candidate
- in Mexico City.
NAFTA a 'one-sided deal'?
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 dollar 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.
That deficit for the trade in goods
is slightly higher than the overall trade deficit - including services
- of $49 billion in 2015.
Trump has vowed to renegotiate the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico the United States and Canada.
That
renegotiation could provide one way for Trump to claim victory, through
increased tariffs on Mexican goods or higher border transit costs.
But it could also risk retaliatory tariffs or blowback from US firms who export $267 billion a year south of the border.
Trump
has also ordered officials to scour US government departments and
agencies in search of "direct and indirect" aid or assistance to the
Mexican government and report back within 30 days.
Own party concerned
The United
States is expected to provide about $134m worth of assistance to
Mexico this year, with much of the spending wrapped up in the "Merida
Initiative" to combat drug cartels.
Trump was in Philadelphia on Thursday for a Republican congressional retreat, where he will have to calm some jitters.
While
Trump has pursued a solidly conservative governing agenda, his
outbursts over inauguration crowd size, his war of words with the media,
and revival of his claim of massive voter fraud has led to concerns
within his own party.
The Philadelphia meeting will feature
another high-profile guest: British Prime Minister Theresa May, who will
become the first foreign leader to meet Trump since his inauguration.
May,
who addresses the Republican retreat shortly after Trump, will almost
certainly discuss the prospects of a key post-Brexit trade deal with the
United States.
The two leaders will meet in Washington on Friday and hold a joint news conference, the White House said.
