So you want to play hardball Mr Trump? Mexico is to consider revoking a series of bilateral treaties — including the1848 agreement that transferred half its territory to the US — if theRepublican candidate wins the presidency and rips up the North American FreeTrade Agreement, according to a bill to be presented to Congress.
The initiative, to be proposed today byArmando Ríos Piter, a leftwing senator, follows last week's much-criticisedmeeting between Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and US presidentialconten-der Donald Trump, which inflamed public opinion and sparked a cabinetrift.
Mr Peña Nieto has faced a backlash at homeover what many saw as his red carpet treatment of Mr Trump during the latter'svisit, as the Republican has branded Mexicans rapists and wants to build aborder wall that he insists Mexico will pay for.
This is the first step towards establishinga public policy about how Mexico should react in the face of a threat, Mr Ríos Piter said.
里奥斯·皮特表示,这是朝着制定一项有关墨西哥面对威胁时应当如何反应的公共政策迈出的第一步。
This bill is simply to protect asuccessful 22-year-old relationship Nafta that has helped both nations.
这份法案只是为了保护NAFTA这一长达22年的成功关系,此关系使两国都受益。
We want to defend that from a position thatseeks to destroy it. We have to put it in black and white.
我们想保护它,抵御寻求摧毁它的立场。我们不得不用白纸黑字写下来。
The move is the idea of Agustín Barrios Gómez, aleftwing former legislator who heads the Mexico Image Foundation, set up toimprove foreign perceptions of the country.
It would make it illegal for Mexico to useofficial cash to fund the building of a border wall.
新法案如通过,墨西哥使用官方资金资助边境高墙将成为非法行为。
If Mr Trump tried to seize the $24bn inannual remittances from the US to Mexico to pay for it, the bill would allowMexico to retaliate by impounding the same sum, probably through a tax onremittances heading in the other direction.
Further, if Mr Trump tried to scrap the1994 Nafta free-trade deal, credited with creating one in three jobs in Mexico,it would review all 75 bilateral treaties to establish if they were in thenational interest.
That includes the 1848 treaty that endedthe Mexican-American War, which transferred a stretch of Mexican territory tothe US, including California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.