Fmr. Mexican Pres. Calderon: Reducing Trade Would Threaten U.S. Jobs

The now-presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, stirred up millions of voters early in his presidential campaign by saying he would build a wall separating the U.S. and Mexico, that wouldn’t cost Americans money. Instead, he asserted the entire structure would be paid for by Mexico.

After vulgar comments made by former Mexican Vicente Fox about Trump’s statement, Felipe Calderon, a former Mexican president himself, is calling for a rational discussion on trade immigration between his country and the United States, while calling Fox’s comments “disgusting” and “disappointing.”

“It is not necessary to go to the insults,” Calderon told the FOX Business Network’s Liz Claman. “We need to provide rationality to the debate. We need to provide arguments.”

Calderon, who served as Mexico’s president from 2006 to 2012, said the proposed wall was non-negotiable and would not consider contributing funds at all.

“It’s an absurd and stupid wall,” he said. “[The U.S. doesn’t] have the right to impose any charge on any neighbor. It’s the same way people have the right to do a wall in his or her own house, but doesn’t have the right to impose the cost of the wall to the neighborhood.”

The former Mexican statesman issued a warning about the consequences of the U.S. reducing trade with Mexico.

“Six million American jobs will be under threat,” he said. “Why? Because six million families in the United States depend on trade with Mexico. Mexico is the second largest buyer of American products. Mexican people are the second largest group of tourists to the United States. Both economies depend a lot on our common trade and relations.”

Calderon added: “[Trump] needs to know that the net migration of Mexican workers to the United States went to zero. And even today it’s negative, meaning that there are more Mexican workers coming back to Mexico than Mexican workers going to the United States.”