United States president Donald Trump was urged by the top US business lobbying group and Mexico’s president not to implement his threat of imposing import tariffs on all Mexican products exported in to the US over the issue of illegal migration from into the country from its Southern neighbor.

If Mexico is unable to curb the flow of illegal immigrants into the US, tariffs would be imposed on the country from June 10, Trump warned last earlier in the week. Most of those immigrants come from Central American companies and use the U.S.-Mexican border to sneak into the US. That announcement by Trump rattled the Mexican financial assets and impacted global stocks.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed optimism that Trump would rectify his demand given the fact that he is also currently engaged in an acrimonious trade war with China.

“I tell all Mexicans to have faith, we will overcome this attitude of the U.S. government, they will make rectifications because the Mexican people don’t deserve to be treated in the way being attempted,” Lopez Obrador told reporters.

Earlier in the year, trump had threatened to close down the US-Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration which was later denounced by him in April after serve concerns about a chaos to business resulting from the shutdown were expressed by US companies.

Following the unexpected announcement of tariffs on Mexico by Trump, there was a surge of safe-haven sovereign bonds while a steep fall in global equities. Investors were fearful of the Trump administration opening up another front of trade war which could result in recession for the United States and other major economies.

Means of challenging the move of Trump to impose tariff on Mexico, including legal options, are being currently explored by the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce business group.

“We have no choice but to pursue every option available to push back,” Neil Bradley, the group’s executive vice president and chief policy officer, told reporters.

Trump’s threat of tariffs was also criticized by other industry groups who alleged that such a measure would impact businesses, farmers and consumers of the US who are already under pressure because of the US’s separate trade war with China.

“These proposed tariffs would have devastating consequences on manufacturers in America and on American consumers,” Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement.

Efforts to win U.S. congressional approval for the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement could be undermined because of a tariff war with Mexico, believes auto trade organizations.

Trump’s plan for Mexico tariffs involves imposing an initial tariff of 5 per cent on Mexican imports, starting on June 10, and then gradually increasing the tariffs by 5 per cent every month until it reaches 25 per cent on October 1.

The Mexican economy would be impacted by such tariffs because it is critically dependent on US export. Mexico regularly exports a host of products into the US which includes goods ranging from avocados and tequila to televisions and cars.

(Adapted from Huffington-Global.com)

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