(CNSNews.com) -- Speaking at a rally in Tijuana on Saturday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said “we celebrate” the agreement made with President Donald Trump to help curb the flow of migrants at the border and to avoid tariffs.
"We celebrate the important agreement of yesterday because it was a very difficult situation, very awkward doing the same and applying tariffs to some products of the U.S., the same measures, commercial restrictions similar to the ones that would be imposed on Mexican exports," Lopez Obrador said, according to Voice of America.
President Trump tweeted on Friday, "I am pleased to inform you that the United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico. The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended.”
He continued, “Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States.”
Had an agreement not been reached, President Trump would have placed a 5% import tariff on all Mexican goods beginning June 10, increasing to as high as 25% by Oct. 1.
According to the agreement released by the State Department, “Mexico will take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration, to include the deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border.”
In addition, Mexico will also take “decisive action to dismantle human smuggling and trafficking organizations as well as their illicit financial and transportation networks.”
The agreement further states, “The United States will immediately expand the implementation of the existing Migrant Protection Protocols across its entire Southern Border. This means that those crossing the U.S. Southern Border to seek asylum will be rapidly returned to Mexico where they may await the adjudication of their asylum claims.”
“In response, Mexico will authorize the entrance of all of those individuals for humanitarian reasons, in compliance with its international obligations, while they await the adjudication of their asylum claims,” said the State Department. “Mexico will also offer jobs, healthcare and education according to its principles.”
“We take advantage of being here in Tijuana to say to the people of the United States once more that we do not harbor any intention nor will we harbor any intention to harm them, and we are resolved to collaborate with them in all areas, especially on the concern spurred by the growth of the migratory flow to their country,” Lopez Obrador said, according to Time.
He continued “At the same time, we ask for their understanding because the migratory phenomenon doesn’t come from nowhere, it comes from the material needs and the insecurity in the Central American countries and in marginalized sectors and regions of Mexico, where there are human beings who need to set out on a pilgrimage to mitigate their hunger and their poverty or to save their lives.”
President Trump tweeted on Saturday. “I would like to thank the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, together with all of the many representatives of both the United States and Mexico, for working so long and hard to get our agreement on immigration completed!”