Mexico ‘must take back country’ from drug cartels: Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday it was time for Mexico to "take back" the country from drug cartels, claiming that his newly announced tariffs would help stop the flow of narcotics over the border.Late on Thursday, Trump said he would impose tariffs on all products from Mexico from June 10 at a rate of five percent -- a rate that would increase incrementally if Mexico does not clamp down on cross-border migration."Mexico must take back their country from the drug lords and cartels. The Tariff is about stopping drugs as well as illegals!" Trump tweeted. The US leader claimed that "90% of the Drugs coming into the United States come through Mexico & our Southern Border. 80,000 people died last year, 1,000,000 people ruined.""This has gone on for many years & nothing has been done about it. We have a 100 Billion Dollar Trade Deficit with Mexico. It’s time!"Trump’s announcement of fresh tariffs -- which came as the US, Mexico and Canada are looking to seal their revamped free trade deal -- sent markets tumbling on Friday.Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador has called for talks with Washington on migration, and said he does not want "confrontation."Mexico's president has insisted his government will not be provoked, after President Donald Trump announced escalating tariffs on all goods unless Mexico curbed illegal migration.Andrés Manuel López Obrador described Mr Trump's slogan "America First" as a fallacy and said universal justice was more important than borders. Stock markets saw sharp losses following Mr Trump's announcement.Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border in February. He said it was necessary in order to tackle what he claimed was a crisis with thousands of undocumented migrants crossing the US southern frontier.Trump's latest statement came a day after US border authorities in El Paso, Texas, detained a group of more than 1,000 migrants - the largest single group agents had ever encountered. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Friday that Mexico could have done more to stop the group - and others - as they travelled through the country."They could have easily broken up this group, arrested them or sent them back home, and they didn't do anything," she told reporters. "We're asking Mexico to enforce their own laws to help stop the people coming in from Central America."The president said he had ordered his foreign minister to travel to Washington on Friday. "I want to insist that we are not going to fall into any provocations, that we are going to act prudently with respect to the authorities of the United States [and] with respect to President Donald Trump," he said.In a letter to his US counterpart, Mr López Obrador said Mexico was complying with its responsibility to avoid "as far as possible and without violating human rights, the passage [of migrants] through our country".

from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2Wh2Jer