President Trump intends to pay for the coming US-Mexico wall with a 20 percent tax on all imports coming from Mexico, White house spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday.
He said the plan now taking shape would tax imports from countries “that we have a trade deficit from, like Mexico.”
“If you tax that $50 billion at 20 percent of imports – which is by the way a practice that 160 other countries do – right now our country’s policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in, which is ridiculous,” Spicer told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Spicer said the new tax would generate $10 billion a year and “easily pay for the wall.”
The news came the same day the president of Mexico canceled his trip to the US next week after Trump said there was no point to their meeting if mexico won;t pay for the wall.
“This is something that we’ve been in close contact with both houses in moving forward and creating a plan,” Spicer said of the tax plan, suggesting that congressional Republicans back the proposal.
“It clearly provides the funding and does so in a way that the American taxpayer is wholly respected.”
Building a wall on the US’ southern border–paid for by Mexico–was a key campaign promise from Trump.
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January 26th, 2017 @ 2:30 pm
Go for it. They have been having a bargain for more than 10+years
January 26th, 2017 @ 6:45 pm
Sounds like a good idea. Also, how about a 20% tax on the money the illegals are sending to mexico, as most of them work off the books & pay no taxes.
January 26th, 2017 @ 8:05 pm
how about a 10% remittance tax to go along with it
January 26th, 2017 @ 8:23 pm
I don’t see how this is making Mexico pay for the wall. I don’t really care who pays for it as long as we build it. However, I think it would be beneficial to charge everyone 10% tax on ANY money being sent out of the country. That might get their attention more.