Mexico won't budge on wall
Mexico is willing to talk with the United States in order to maintain good relations, but paying for President Donald Trump's border wall "is not negotiable," Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Thursday.
"There are things that are not negotiable, things that cannot and will not be negotiated. The fact that it is being said that Mexico should pay for the wall is something that is simply not negotiable," Videgaray said during a press conference at the Mexican embassy in Washington.
The top diplomat was at the White House Thursday to help pave the way for a visit by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Trump had been scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House on Tuesday, for their first meeting since the inauguration.
Instead, the Republican president is managing a foreign policy spat with a normally friendly nation and key trade partner during his first week in office.
The escalating war of words over who would pay for the proposed border wall -- a central pledge made by Trump during his successful presidential campaign -- hit 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.
Pena Nieto, who had good relations with former US president Barack Obama, 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."
Hours later, Trump told Republican lawmakers at a retreat in Philadelphia that the cancellation was by mutual agreement.
"Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route. I have no choice," he said.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the "lines of communications" would remain open and Washington hoped to "schedule something in the future."
But in a move that is sure to increase tensions, Spicer later said that Trump could fund the wall's construction by slapping a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico.
"By doing that, we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone," he said.
The White House later backtracked and called it just one idea among many.
Such a tax, Videgaray said Thursday, would only harm Americans.
Trump signed an order Wednesday for work to begin on building a wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border.
But the US leader has struggled to articulate how the wall will be paid for, though he has suggested recently that the United States would fund it first and Mexico would reimburse the cost later.
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.
Comments