President Donald Trump has announced that he had suspended plans to impose tariffs on Mexico, tweeting that the country "has agreed to take strong measures" to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.
But the deal the two neighbours agreed to falls short of some of the dramatic overhauls the US had pushed for.
A "US-Mexico Joint Declaration" released by the State Department said the US "will immediately expand the implementation" of a program that returns asylum-seekers who cross the southern border to Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. Mexico will "offer jobs, healthcare and education" to those people, the agreement stated.
Mexico has also agreed, it said, to take "unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration," including the deployment of the Mexican National Guard throughout the country, especially on its southern border with Guatemala.
And Mexico is taking "decisive action to dismantle human smuggling and trafficking organizations as well as their illicit financial and transportation networks," the State Department said late Friday.
The move puts to an end for now a threat that had sparked dire warnings from members of Trump's own party, who warned the tariffs would damage the economy, drive up prices for consumers and imperil an updated North American trade pact.
Trump's Friday night tweet marked a sharp reversal from earlier in the day, when his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: "Our position has not changed. The tariffs are going forward as of Monday."
Trump had announced the tariff plan last week, declaring in a tweet that, on June 10, the US would "impose a 5 per cent Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP."
After returning from Europe Friday, though, Trump tweeted, "I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico."
He wrote that the "Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the US on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended." He said Mexico has agreed to work to "stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border" and said those steps would "greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States."