Mexico says won't pay for Trump's 'terrible' border wall

Yahoo.com ^ | 2016 | Reuters

[GilGil]

Trump, the New York billionaire developer and former reality television star, sparked outrage in Mexico when he vowed to force Latin America's second largest economy to pay for a wall along the southern U.S. border to stem the flow of illegal immigration and drugs.

In a televised interview late on Wednesday, Finance Minister Luis Videgaray categorically rejected the proposal.

"Under no circumstance will Mexico pay for the wall that Mr. Trump is proposing," he said. "Building a wall between Mexico and the United States is a terrible idea. It is an idea based on ignorance and has no foundation in the reality of North American integration."

[Mollypitcher1]

Baloney. If it goes to Mexico it is taxed. Period!

[Amendment10]

"A 10% fee on Western Union wire transfers to Mexico should do the trick."

You’re hired ! ;^)

[DoodleDawg]

Top U.S. Exports to Mexico:

1. Machinery: $42.1 billion
2. Electronic equipment: $41.1 billion
3. Vehicles: $22.4 billion
4. Oil: $18.6 billion
5. Plastics: $16.5 billion
6. Medical, technical equipment: $6.7 billion
7. Iron or steel products: $5.2 billion
8. Organic chemicals: $4.8 billion
9. Aircraft, spacecraft: $4.3 billion
10. Iron and steel: $4.1 billion

How many U.S. jobs will be lost when Mexico retaliates? It's a double-edged sword.

[Rustybucket]

Listen Mexico;
You have an opportunity here, the wall is going to be built, you can get positive PR, and openly pay for it, or you will be sanctioned, and when that happens, monies normally going to you from the US, will stop. Import/Export will stop, you will get all your criminals after the wall is built DUMPED over the line. Your businesses at the border will lose revenue, life will become very hard for you, and still the Wall will be built.

You will become the author of your undoing, and you know it now, and will confirm it then.

Pop the popcorn, its gonna be interesting.

Authorization for deadly force along the border will be the order of the day IMO.

[DoodleDawg]

Baloney. If it goes to Mexico it is taxed. Period!

So people who are here legally or U.S. citizens with relatives in Mexico will be forced to pay an additional tax on their transactions? Be sure to make that clear ahead of time; it'll do wonders for attracting the Hispanic vote. </sarcasm>

[Obadiah]

Ha! There you go.

[The Toll]

You know Mehico, here’s the thing, we have uneducatable welfare lifers ourselves. Maybe your way is the right way. Maybe we’ll just throw ours over the fence into your yard. Two can play at that game. Get ready for some diversity fellas!

[hoagy62]

All I know is that, should Trump win in November, within a week he needs to start contacting contractors.

The basic architectural plans needs to be drawn up by the end of December.

On January 21st next year, we need to have a massive amount of workers and materiel poised at the border and ready to start building. Not to mention...we can’t forget about the guard towers, the electronic sensors, and (if we really want to do it right) the machine gun emplacements.

We’re going to want it to look so formidable that even the most desperate will see it and realize there’s no way in Hell they could ever make it to the other side.

[MortMan]

Ask yourself this: If American consumers end up footing the bill, doesn;t that mean Mexico didn’t pay for it?

[taterjay]

Trump nailed it. When all these screaming libs go running out of America, as they have said if Trump is elected, Mexico will be building the wall high and strong.

[TexasGator]

“Firstly, hasn’t Mexico built a wall along the Guatemala Mexico border? “

We probably paid for it ...

[DouglasKC]

A 10% fee on Western Union wire transfers to Mexico should do the trick. It sure will. Tax on the illegal. My wife works at store where they do Western Union xfers. She can't believe how much money is shipped out of the country on a daily basis.

[kingu]

I’d love to see a break down of how much of those exports are going to American companies in Mexico. I’m going to bet a significant part.

[blowfish]

Yes, but The Donald would just claim otherwise and declare victory. The Donald is never wrong.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” it’ll do wonders for attracting the Hispanic vote. </sarcasm> “

If we had not allowed the Establishment scum to flood our country with illegal immigrants, we wouldn’t even be discussing the “hispanic vote”

I don’t give a rats a$$ about the so called hispanic vote. I’m interested in the AMERICAN vote.

[hawkaw]

But if we pay the little more in order to pay the tariff then aren’t we actually paying for the wall as the Mexican companies are basically passing the increased cost on to the consumer?

[bigbob]

Well here’s my idea:

Trump says we only need to build about 1000 miles of wall due to the existance of natural boundaries. He also says it can be built for about $12 billion. A builder like Donald Trump isn’t going to just pull a number like that out of thin air, so let’s assume it’s reasonably accurate.

$12,000,000 divided by 1,000 miles = $12 million per mile.

What if the Trump Administration put out an invitation to bidders across the United States to build one mile of The Wall for a flat-fee price of $12 million. First come, first served and if their balance sheet supports it, bidders coul bid on more than one mile, contingent on performance and timing.

This would generate jobs for American construction workers from all over the country and all the support facilities and equipment providers would prosper. By working the project in parallel rather than sequentially the wall would be completed much faster and by having multiple contractors more Americans would be positive impacted.

FORMER Presidente Vincente Fox would be presented with a gold-plated pair of binoculars so he could watch the progress from the Mexican side, where the words “Fox’s F’ing Wall” would be stenciled ever mile or so.

[sphinx]

Better to put a 10% tax on transfers and pay for the wall as it is built.

Ah, exit taxes on legally earned money. Next we'll have exit taxes on individuals. Democrats will love this. Fortress America becomes Prison America.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Will every grocery store in the U.S. be forced to check proof of citizenship of every person trying to wire money?

Actually they should. My spouse used to work the service desk at a grocery store, and had several uncomfortable experiences with Middle Easterners wiring large sums out of the country.

[bigbob]

Fair point. I guess a better way to make sure Mexico bears the financial burden would be to import those same goods from elsewhere or to produce them within the US at the same cost.

That might not be as contradictory as it may seem. My experience dates back to the 1990s, but may still be valid. At that time US companies like mine who put maquilla plants in Mexico were reluctant to make big capital investments e.g. automaton, instead relying on increased use of (cheap) labor. Clearly something like the new Ford plant is a contrary example but one way to equalize the Mexican labor cost advantage is through higher productivity here in the US.

On the other hand, the threat of higher tariffs *might* persuade Mexico that it’s less disruptive and even cheaper in the long run to just pay for the wall and continue with business as usual.