United States President Donald Trump is considering imposing a 20% tax on Mexican imports to pay for his proposed wall along the border between the two countries, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Thursday. The statement came after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled his official visit to the US after Trump signed an order on the wall. The US president has maintained that the decision to cancel the meeting was mutual, The Washington Times reported.

Spicer said the tax, known as the border adjustment tax, was just one of several options being considered to fund the construction and make it feasible. His statement triggered a dip in the Mexican peso during the day’s trade and provoked reactions from the president’s fellow Republicans as well as the Democrats. Texas Senator John Cornyn, on Twitter, said, there were “many unanswered questions about the proposed border adjustment tax”.

The White House spokesperson dismissed reporters’ criticism of the proposal affecting Americans as “short-sighted”, CNN reported. “I just want to be clear that we are not being prescriptive in saying that is the only way nor is the rate prescriptive,” Spicer said, after Pena Nieto cancelled his meeting with Trump over differences on the matter while reaffirming Mexico’s willingness to improve bilateral ties.

On Wednesday, Trump had signed an executive order to speed up the process to build the proposed wall along the US-Mexico border – one of the main focuses during his campaign days. Trump’s order on border control refers to the proposed 2,000-mile US-Mexico wall as “a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous and impassable physical barrier.” It includes hiring 5,000 more border patrol agents and 10,000 more immigration officers.

Pena Nieto reiterated Mexico’s stance against the move and the country’s unwillingness to pay for its construction. Supporters of immigration decried the newly-inducted president’s actions. Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project Omar Jadwat had said Trump’s order was “driven by racial and ethnic bias that disgraces America’s proud tradition of protecting vulnerable migrants”.

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