US President Donald Trump on Thursday, November 12 threatened to double tariffs on Mexico if it does not stop a group of more than a thousand migrants walking north toward the United States, warning that they would not be allowed to enter the country, Reuters reported from Washington.

Source: Reuters

"Here we go again!" Trump wrote on social media. "They will not be accepted! MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED. MEXICO, THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, THE VERY LIBERAL NEW GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, OUR GREAT BORDER PATROL, & ICE, HAVE BEEN SO INFORMED. There will be no leniency!"

Source: Reuters

A caravan that left Tapachula on Tuesday

The group, estimated at about 1,500 people and mostly from Central America, set off on Tuesday, November 10 from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, near the Guatemala border, Reuters reported. Its members hope that the Democrats' victory in last week's US midterm elections could open pathways for them to live and work in the United States.

Trump's post set no deadline for Mexico to act and did not name the current tariff rate that would be doubled. Bloomberg reported that it is uncertain whether he can lawfully double the levies, because a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year limited his tariff powers.

Source: Bloomberg via Unbiased Headlines

Threat lands in the middle of trade talks

The threat comes while the United States and Mexico are negotiating a trade deal, after Trump chose in July not to extend the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the pact that has governed North American trade. A doubling of tariffs on Mexico — one of America's largest trading partners — would be a trade shock felt well beyond the border, including in Canada, the third USMCA partner.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was due to hold a news conference on Thursday morning. As of the first reports, the Mexican government had not publicly responded to the threat.

Source: Bloomberg via Unbiased Headlines

What happens next: watch for Sheinbaum's response, any formal US tariff notice, and whether Mexico moves security forces against the caravan, which is still in southern Mexico, more than a thousand miles from the US border.