Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador noted that his country could win a trade war with the US but that it would be a "Pyrrhic victory" and that Mexico is better off avoiding such a conflict, according to Reuters.
Earlier, the US and Mexico issued a joint bilateral declaration on measures to reduce the flow of illegal migrants through the US-Mexican border. Mexico agreed to send its National Guard to the southern border and take steps to stop human smuggling.
The US, for its part, will return asylum seekers trying to cross the border to Mexico, where they will remain as their cases are judged.
The declaration was developed following US President Donald Trump's promise to impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico beginning on 10 June. The US president added at the time that the duties would go up to 25 percent by October if America's southern neighbour did not take steps to slow the movement of illegal immigrants into the country.
Caravans of migrants from Central American countries seeking asylum began to move toward the United States through Mexico last fall. Trump called the surge of arrivals a crisis and declared a national emergency in February to secure funds to build a wall on the border with Mexico.
