New York [USA]: U.S. President Donald Trump has decided he will seek to pay for the wall on the southern border with Mexico by imposing a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico and as part of a larger comprehensive tax reform plan.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Thursday that the comprehensive tax reform package Trump and Republicans are looking to put together will include taxing imports from other countries, like Mexico, reports the CNN.
“By doing it that we can do USD 10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. That’s really going to provide the funding,” Spicer said, referring to a 20 percent tax on the roughly USD 50 billion in imports from Mexico.
This comes as Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled a planned meeting with Trump after the U.S. President signed an executive order Wednesday kicking off the process of building the border wall and vowed once again to force Mexico to pay for it.
Mexico has adamantly rejected the notion that they would fund the border wall.
That alternative route of raising a massive import tax on goods exported from Mexico to the U.S. could cause the price of U.S. consumer goods produced in Mexico to skyrocket.
The move is likely to be met by stiff opposition from the business community.
“It clearly provides the funding and does so in a way that the American taxpayer is wholly respected,” Spicer said of the move. (ANI)