The Mexican leader responded to Trump’s claim that he was willing to stop immigration.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to clarify the details of her conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump, after the two leaders offered differing accounts of the call.

After Wednesday’s call, Trump said Sheinbaum had “agreed to freeze immigration through Mexico and effectively close our southern border into the United States”.

This prompted Sheinbaum to say that he merely reiterated Mexico’s position, which he said was “not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and people”.

The call followed Trump’s announcement on Monday that, after taking office in January, he would impose tariffs of 25 percent on Mexico and Canada and 10 percent on China.

He said that import duties on Mexico and Canada will be removed only when illegal immigration and drug trafficking into the United States is stopped.

The announcement was initially met with bellicose language from President Shinzo Abe, who had vowed earlier on Wednesday that he would retaliate if the US started a trade war.

“If there are U.S. tariffs, Mexico will raise them as well,” he said of the proposed duties, which appear to violate the USMCA trade agreement that Trump himself signed in 2018 between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. What happened during the first presidency?

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mexico’s president said he did not specifically discuss tariffs in the phone call with Trump but did discuss immigration and fentanyl trafficking — Trump’s first move to impose tariffs. The reasons given for

She said he had assured her that a migrant caravan she had expressed concern about was “not going to arrive. [northern] Mexico’s border” with the U.S. But he stressed that “we have never had a plan to close the border with the U.S.”

Sheinbaum insisted that the conversation was “very amicable” and that they had agreed that they would “continue our discussions”.

In what appeared to be a far more conciliatory tone than his initial response to Trump’s import tax announcement, he also insisted that there was now “no chance of a tariff war” between Mexico and the US.

The flow of Mexican immigrants into the United States has long strained relations between the two neighbors and has become a key issue in the 2024 White House race that culminated in Trump’s landslide victory this month.

Under U.S. diplomatic pressure, Mexico is carrying out its biggest-ever crackdown on migrants, busing and flying non-Mexican migrants into the country’s south, far from the U.S. border.

But Trump campaigned on a promise to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs in an effort to force Mexico to do more to stop migrants from reaching the U.S. southern border. Seen as

The Mexican government, in turn, has demanded that the United States take action to stop the flow of arms being smuggled into Mexico.

Sheinbaum told reporters Thursday that she would raise the issue of guns with Trump “in due course.”

Earlier this week, Trump spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

On Wednesday night, Trudeau held an emergency meeting with leaders of the country’s provinces and territories to discuss the threat of tariffs.

According to a summary of the call, he was urged to use all of his contacts, channels and capabilities to “deliver critical information and messages to Americans and people of influence” about the deepening economic and security relationship between the United States and Canada. Use “. .