Mexico has 45 days to limit the flow of migrants

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The United States gave Mexico 45 days to reduce the number of migrants crossing its territory to the United States.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Monday provided details of an agreement with the United States to avoid the imposition of tariffs on Mexican products.

Although no specific targets have been set, measures taken by Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants will be badessed in mid-July, said Ebrard.

If the number does not decrease by then, a regional solution would be sought.

"Time to buy"

Ebrard said the deal reached on Friday after days of "toughest negotiations" had given Mexico time to show that it could succeed in reducing the number of migrants.

He said the US negotiators had hoped that Mexico would commit to "zero migration" on its territory, but according to Mr. Ebrard, it was "impossible mission".

Ebrard said that the US side also wanted to designate Mexico as a "safe third country", which would have required it to accommodate asylum seekers heading to the United States and to process their claims. on his own soil.

The Foreign Minister said that he had avoided this measure for the moment: "We told them – I think it was the most important outcome of the negotiations -" set a deadline to see if this that the proposed Mexico will work and if not, we will sit down and see what additional measures are needed ".

Mexico has announced that it will deploy its national guard nationwide starting Monday with the dispatch of an additional 6,000 troops to its southern border with Guatemala.

How did we come here?

Illegal border crossings on Mexico's northern border with the United States have further increased after reaching a low point in the first year of US President Donald Trump's term.

In February, Trump declared an emergency on the US-Mexico border, saying it was necessary to deal with what he called a crisis.

In May, Mr Trump threatened to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican goods on June 10 and to increase these rates by 5% every month until reaching 25% in October if Mexico does not take significant steps to reduce migration.

Mexico is currently one of the largest trading partners of the United States, just behind China and Canada. After days of negotiations, an agreement was reached Friday and was welcomed by both parties.

But on Monday, President Trump warned that tariffs were not completely removed, saying that if the part of the deal that required the approval of the Congress of Mexico was not adopted, the rates would be reinstated.

When asked about the tweet, Mr. Ebrard said that he thought President Trump was referring to any regional measures to be taken in connection with the Central American countries from which most of the migrants come from .

He said these measures would only be taken if the actions planned by the Mexican government, such as strengthening its border with Guatemala, failed.

"If these measures do not work, we should move to a regional model to be approved by the [Mexican] Congress, that's what he's referring to, "Ebrard told reporters at a news conference.

President Trump also said that Mexico would soon make "big" agricultural purchases in the United States.

Asked Monday on the agreement, however, Mr. Ebrard said that there had been no further agreement with the United States and that the US president was probably referring to the expected growth of trade following the agreement on migration.