- Title: Tijuana residents says Trump wall no border solution
- Date: 26th January 2017
- Summary: TIJUANA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO (JANUARY 25, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC AT BORDER CROSSING PEDESTRIANS NEAR BORDER PEDESTRIAN ACCESS NEAR BORDER CROSSING MORE OF PEDESTRIANS BUSKERS PLAYING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DUAL MEXICAN-AMERICAN CITIZEN, IRMA MOLINA, SAYING: "The wall won't help much. On the contrary, it will put up a barrier for Mexico and the United States. The people of Mexico are very hard working and there are many people in the United States who depend on the government. So I think that Mexican labour is necessary for the United States but Donald Trump has his rules and he wants a change in the United States." ROUNDABOUT PEOPLE ON STREET PEOPLE AT EVENT FOR BUSINESS SECTOR (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRESIDENT OF COMPARMEX TIJUANA, GILBERTO FIMBRES, SAYING: "In Wisconsin, in Illinois, they've never seen the border. They don't know that there is already a wall but there is talk that there will be a wall. They talk about this wall, but I've been seeing this wall for 40, 50 years... it's nothing new." PRESIDENT OF THE BUSINESS COORDINATING COUNCIL OF TIJUANA, HUMBERTO JARAMILLO, SPEAKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRESIDENT OF THE BUSINESS COORDINATING COUNCIL OF TIJUANA, HUMBERTO JARAMILLO, SAYING: "Sending a container to Asia costs a third of what it costs to get to New York or any other place in the United States. I think we have a business culture that is very linked to Asia, for example." MORE OF PEDESTRIANS PEDESTRIAN OVERPASS WITH TRAFFIC BELOW TO CROSS BORDER
- Embargoed: 9th February 2017 04:01
- Keywords: Tijuana Mexico United States border wall Donald Trump
- Location: TIJUANA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
- City: TIJUANA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00160PUZIF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Residents of Mexico's border city of Tijuana told Reuters that Trump's proposed border wall is not the solution to border security between the two neighbouring countries.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday (January 25) ordered construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall via directive to cover the roughly 2,000-mile (3,200-km) U.S.-Mexico border.
Tijuana sits in the Mexican state of Baja California, just across from San Diego, California. A border wall already exists along the international border between the cities.
Dual Mexican-U.S. citizen Irma Molina said the wall will only serve to heighten barriers between the two neighbours.
"The wall won't help much. On the contrary, it will put up a barrier for Mexico and the United States. The people of Mexico are very hard working and there are many people in the United States who depend on the government. So I think that Mexican labour is necessary for the United States but Donald Trump has his rules and he wants a change in the United States," she said.
The Tijuana border crossing into the United States is reportedly one of the busiest international land crossings in the world, with many Mexicans crossing over for work and Americans coming into Mexico to purchase cheaper items.
Gilberto Fimbres is the president of an employer group COMPARMEX. He derided recent talk of a border wall given that a series of walls along the Mexican-U.S. frontier already traverse areas of the border.
"In Wisconsin, in Illinois, they've never seen the border. They don't know that there is already a wall, but there is talk that there will be a wall. They talk about this wall, but I've been seeing this wall for 40, 50 years... it's nothing new," he said.
Tijuana is also a popular commercial crossing point where, under NAFTA, companies on both sides of the border ship goods. Goods traded last year between the two countries topped $530 billion dollars.
But with Trump threatening to renegotiate NAFTA, Mexican businesses have reportedly eyed new opportunities in Asia.
Humberto Jaramillo of the Tijuana Business Coordinating Council told Reuters shipping goods to Asia was cheaper than sending them north to the United States.
"Sending a container to Asia costs a third of what it costs to get to New York or any other place in the United States. I think we have a business culture that is very linked to Asia, for example," he said.
President Enrique Pena Nieto is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump next week to discuss bilateral issues concerning trade and the border.
But critics are urging the Mexican leader to cancel the meeting to protest Trump's border wall directive. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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