Since taking office, President Donald Trump has put his money where his mouth was on the campaign trail by taking measures intended to transform his campaign promises into reality. On Wednesday, Trump signed his first executive orders dealing with immigration, putting the wheels in motion for the crackdown on so-called "sanctuary cities" and the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto responded to these executive orders by canceling his upcoming meeting with Trump -- a move that did not sit well with the global currency market.
Peso tumbles after Peña Nieto scraps meeting
According to Business Insider, almost immediately after Peña Nieto said he would not attend the meeting the Mexican peso began to lose its value, plummeting 1.2 percent as of 11:57 Thursday morning. It now takes 21.3175 pesos to equal one U.S. dollar. Peña Nieto had planned on meeting with Trump next Tuesday, but Mexican opposition leaders implored him to cancel the meeting to protest Trump's demand that Mexico foot the bill for the border wall.
Peña Nieto kowtows to opposition demands
On Wednesday, Margarita Zavala, a member of Mexico's National Action Party rumored to be a strong contender in that nation's 2018 presidential election, called on Peña Nieto to back out of the meeting, stating that Trump's announcement was "an affront to Mexico." Senator Armando Rios Piter of the nation's Democratic Revolution Party took it one step further, calling Trump's executive orders a "hostile act" and demanding that Peña Nieto cancel the meeting.
Business Insider also reports that Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico's Economy Minister, hinted that Mexico may withdraw from NAFTA if negotiations with the Trump administration do not serve his county's best economic interests.
The move to scrap the meeting came as Mexico's foreign and economy ministers were in Washington to make preparations for Peña Nieto's visit that had been scheduled for January 31. As of Thursday afternoon, neither the president of Mexico nor his spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, have issued an official statement regarding the sudden decline in the value of Mexico's currency.
