Donald Trump (Photo: Reuters)
New Delhi: Days after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order and vowed to make Mexico pay for the wall along the 2000-mile US-Mexico border, Mexican Ambassador to India, Melba Pria, made it clear that Mexico would never pay for it and the only one who would end up funding Trump’s ‘bold’ campaign promise would be the US taxpayer.
Speaking exclusively to CNN-News18, the Mexican envoy said, “I don’t know who pays for walls in the US but it’s certainly not going to be Mexico. Taxes pay for infrastructure in all our countries and it’s the public of the country which has to pay for it.”
When asked whether Trump’s order on the wall estimated to cost a whopping 15 billion dollars would pass the Congress’ scrutiny, Melba Pria said, “You will have to ask America. International economics is not a zero-sum game. It has to be a win-win situation. I am sure the US public would need many more pieces of infrastructure, which is more important than the wall.
Melba Pria took great pains to explain how Trump’s tirade against Mexico for taking away jobs and manufacturing was so much at odds with statistics. She repeatedly stressed that “America wouldn’t become great again by just building a wall” as the two economies were too closely interlinked.
Pria said, “Mexican exports have forty percent American components but that forty percent is also creating jobs in the United States. The American association of car makers thinks that six million jobs US are linked to Mexico. So it is a complicated equation.”
She explained how the auto industry was scared of Trump’s policies. “A car crosses the US-Mexico border eight times before it is finished. The Ford produced in Mexico costs 22000 dollars to the US consumer. If made in the US, the cost goes up to 29000.”“The auto industry is worried that their cars would become at least 40 percent more expensive than Japanese cars and even American’s won’t buy the.”
Source: News18