By Jeff Mason
NANTUCKET, Massachusetts (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday mentioned he hoped President-elect Donald Trump would rethink his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it may “screw up” relationships with shut allies.
“I hope he rethinks it. I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,” he informed reporters in Nantucket.
“We have a unusual situation in America – we’re surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two allies: Mexico and Canada. The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships.”
Trump on Monday mentioned he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico till they clamped down on medicine and migrants crossing the border, in a transfer that would seem to violate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade deal.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned on Thursday she didn’t particularly talk about tariffs in a name she held with Trump on Wednesday, including the 2 had agreed there could be good relations between the 2 nations.
Following the decision, Trump mentioned Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
Sheinbaum, nevertheless, mentioned she had laid out a technique that “attended to” migrants earlier than they reached the U.S. border.