President Donald Trump has called Mexico an "abuser" in tweets and urged the construction of a wall along the United States' southern border while reiterating the threat of tariffs.
"Our many companies and jobs that have been foolishly allowed to move South of the Border, will be brought back into the United States through taxation (Tariffs)," Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday morning. "America has had enough!"
His comments came as Mexico's Economy Minister Graciela Marquez was set to meet with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in Washington on Monday, two days before the neighbouring countries are due to discuss possible tariffs on Mexican goods.
Trump has threatened to impose punitive tariffs of 5 per cent on Mexican goods, that would gradually increase to 25 per cent, if Mexico did not stem migration north.
Mexico's deputy minister of foreign trade Luz Maria de la Mora later specified in a tweet that both would analyse the commercial relationship between the two countries, adding that Mexico had become the US' largest trade partner in early 2019.
Meanwhile, top administration officials said on Sunday that Trump's proposed tariffs on Mexican imports would not interfere with the finalisation of a North American trade pact and were designed to force Mexico's hand in immigration talks.
Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, said on Fox News Sunday that the tariffs were "not interrelated" with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal, known as the USMCA, awaiting approval by the US Congress.
He expected a 5 per cent tariff on all Mexican goods to take effect on June 10 because "the president is deadly serious about fixing the situation at the southern border".
Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the tariffs would not worsen Mexico's economic situation and drive more migrants over the border but instead incentivise Mexico to curtail the flow of Central American immigrants that cross through on the way to the US.
"We need Mexico to step up and do more. And these crossings into Mexico are happening at a 150-mile stretch of their Southern border," McAleenan said on CNN's State of the Union.
"This is a controllable area. We need them to put their authorities down there and interdict these folks before they make this route all the way to the US."
McAleenan said that he wanted Mexico to bolster its own immigration screenings along the country's southern border, to crack down on the networks that are transporting the migrants throughout Mexico and to enable more migrants to wait in Mexico while they apply for asylum in the US.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were both "blindsided" when Trump made the tariff decision, with Lighthizer worried it could complicate approval of the USMCA agreement by congress, sources told Reuters.
The US Trade Representative's office said last week that it will not be administering the Mexico tariffs, as it has done for duties levied on about $US250 billion of Chinese goods in Trump's trade war with Beijing.
A spokesman referred questions about the Mexico tariffs to the Department of Homeland Security, which will be the lead agency in the effort.
