Trump threatens tax on imports from Mexico

President Donald Trump said the U.S. could impose 20 percent penalty on Mexican imports as part of a plan to construct a wall between Mexico and the United States, but was imprecise as to whether it should be a tax or tariff.    President Donald Trump said last night in comments to NBC News the U.S. could impose a tax on Mexican imports as part of a plan to construct a wall between Mexico and the United States.
   However, White House aides appeared to step back from statements that suggested the president was interested in either a 20 percent tariff on Mexican goods or some kind of tax on overall imports that could somehow be itemized for Mexico and applied to the border wall. Congressional Republicans have been discussing broader tax reform that includes a new way for taxing imports and exempting exports from taxation in an effort to boost U.S. manufacturing.
   Thursday afternoon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the 20 percent tax would raise $10 billion a year, which could “easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone.”
   Spicer appeared to come up with the $10 billion figure by applying the 20 percent tax to the U.S. trade deficit from Mexico, which was $49.2 billion in 2015, according to the U.S. Trade Representative.
   Trump said the wall would cost $8 billion, but The Hill said that according to independent estimates, it would cost between $15 billion and $25 billion. Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan said it would cost up to $15 billion, Time reported.
   Earlier on Thursday, Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Twitter he would not be attending the scheduled work meeting next Tuesday with Trump in Washington. His statement was in response to Trump’s previous tweet, in which he said, “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”
   Trump signed an executive order Wednesday at the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters, seeming to pave the way for the controversial wall. It’s not yet clear whether the executive order follows legal procedures to be more than a signpost of the administration’s intent at this point.