How Donald Trump's Mexico threat imperils his own economic agenda

Trump announced Thursday that he would impose a 5% tax on all Mexican imports on June 10 - and raise it to 25% by Oct 1 - unless Mexico stopped a surge of Central American migrants into the US

President Donald Trump's vow to impose new tariffs on Mexican imports risks sabotaging not just his drive to forge more favourable trade deals but also a US economy that he says has strengthened under his watch.

Trump announced Thursday that he would impose a 5 per cent tax on all Mexican imports on June 10 — and raise it to 25 per cent by October 1 — unless Mexico stopped a surge of Central American migrants into the US. That would swell the prices Americans pay for countless items from avocadoes to clothes to medical devices.

His threat, which drew an outcry