"The President of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week," Trump said in his remarks at Republican retreat in Philadelphia.
"Unless Mexico is going to treat the US fairly with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless and I want to go in different route. We have no choice," he said.
"Most illegal immigration is coming from our southern border. I've said many times that the American people will not pay for the wall. I've made that clear to the government of Mexico," he asserted.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he said, has been a terrible deal, a total disaster for the US from its inception, costing us as much as USD 60 billion a year with Mexico alone in trade deficits.
"On top of that are the trillions of dollars the US taxpayers have spent to pay the costs of illegal immigration. Much of it is then been sent back, and much of it goes back to other countries, and oftentimes because they don't respect us, the other countries will not accept the criminals that we send back to them that are illegally in our country," Trump said.
"I promise you, they will start accepting them again, quickly. We are not going to them any longer," he said amidst applause from the audience.
Trump said his administration is working on a tax reform bill that will reduce trade deficits, increase American exports and will generate revenue from Mexico that will pay for the wall if the US decides to go that route.
"It is time that the American people had a president fighting as hard for its citizens as other countries do for theirs, and that's exactly what I'm going to do for you Believe me," he said.
"We have been in constant contact with the Mexican government. As you know, Mexican officials were here earlier this week. I think we mutually decided to postpone the meetings but ensure that lines of communications remained open," Spicer said.
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