--- title: Could U.S. Consumers End Up Paying for Border Wall? description: A border adjusted tax mulled by Trump as one way of funding the Mexican wall could see costs passed on to American consumers. canonical: https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-26T20:03:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T12:37:26.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Could U.S. Consumers End Up Paying for the Border Wall? og:description: Trump is considering an import tax. Experts say it will make goods costlier og:url: https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11336317c12abea1/6988b7798fd2eeb9b93558c1/gettyimages-632772214.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a luncheon at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Could U.S. Consumers End Up Paying for the Border Wall? twitter:description: Trump is considering an import tax. Experts say it will make goods costlier twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11336317c12abea1/6988b7798fd2eeb9b93558c1/gettyimages-632772214.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump's Plans Mean That the Cost of the Wall Could Be Passed on to U.S. Consumers > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c680fb4a-1f59-4990-9a06-15138463c961&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Here's How President Trump Says Mexico Could Pay for the Border Wall [Watch (HLS stream): Here's How President Trump Says Mexico Could Pay for the Border Wall](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tIjF4Rrt.m3u8) (0:42)  _Published 2017-01-26. White House spokesman Sean Spicer clarified later to reporters that the tax reform bill could involve a 20 percent tax on imports from countries where the United States has a deficit._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:37 PM UTCPublished: Jan 26, 2017 8:03 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a luncheon at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a luncheon at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Alex Wong—2017 Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:37 PM UTCPublished: Jan 26, 2017 8:03 PM UTC [President Trump](http://time.com/4648921/president-trump-hopes-construction-on-border-wall-can-start-in-months/) pushed back on Thursday against the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s position that his country will never [pay for Trump’s border wall](http://time.com/4650229/donald-trump-border-wall-cost-paul-ryan/), arguing that Mexico would pay for the wall indirectly through a U.S. tax reform measure. “We’re working on a tax-reform bill that will reduce our trade deficits, increase American exports and will generate revenue from Mexico that will pay for the wall, if we decide to go that route,” Trump said at a conference of top Republican officials in Philadelphia. White House spokesman Sean Spicer clarified later to reporters that the tax-reform bill could involve a 20% tax on imports from countries where the U.S. has a deficit. “By doing it that we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone,” Spicer said. “That’s really going to provide the funding.” Relations between the Mexican President and Trump[ have soured](http://time.com/4650459/mexico-president-enrique-pena-nieto-donald-trump-meeting-cancel/) since Trump reiterated a campaign vow that Mexico would pay for his pet project. President Peña Nieto insisted on Wednesday that Mexico would not pay for the wall and announced on Thursday morning that he was canceling a summit meeting with Trump. Trump has also struggled to explain how Mexico would actually pay, saying on Wednesday in [an interview with ABC News](http://time.com/4649681/donald-trump-interview-crowd-size-voter-fraud-torture/) that Mexico would pay maybe in a “complicated way, but they will pay.” Republicans in Congress have supported a tax bill that imposes a border adjusted tax, meaning that imports would be taxed before they entered the U.S. Many economists argue that a tax on goods entering the U.S. is passed on to American consumers — meaning that they would, in effect, be paying for the wall. According to the Associated Press, some 50% of all nonagricultural goods enter the U.S. duty free, and the U.S. is the No. 1 buyer of Mexican goods. Any damage to the Mexican economy, AP says, would “surely spur more people to risk deportation, jail or even death to somehow cross the border to the U.S. — undercutting Trump’s major goal of stopping illegal immigration.” If the wall is paid for through a border adjusted tax, Trump would also be backing away from a central promise of his campaign, since the tax is not the same as requiring Mexico to pay directly for the wall. Trump also committed on Thursday to renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying he will “not allow the taxpayers or citizens” to “pay the cost of this defective transaction.” The President said days after [withdrawing from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership](http://time.com/4643380/donald-trump-tpp-mexico-city-trade-business/) that the U.S. will not make multilateral trade agreements. “We’ve also withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, paving the way for new one-on-one trade deals that protect and defend the American worker and believe me we’re going to have a lot of trade deals,” Trump said. “But they’ll be one-on-one there won’t be a whole big mash pot. They’ll be one-on-one deals.” ## Transcript I think when you look at the plan that's taking shape now using comprehensive tax reform as a means to tax imports from countries that we have a trade deficient from like Mexico. If you tax that 50 %, 50 billion dollars at 20 % of imports. Which is by the way a practice that 160 other countries do right now. Our country's policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in, which is ridiculous. But by doing it that way we can do $ 10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone. If you think about what a border tax on imports from countries like Mexico, that we have a huge trade deficit does, that's really gonna provide the funding. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/"},"headline":"Trump's Plans Mean That the Cost of the Wall Could Be Passed on to U.S. Consumers","datePublished":"2017-01-26T20:03:41.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T12:37:26.000Z","description":"If the wall is paid for through an import tax, Trump will be backing away from a central promise of his campaign — to make Mexico pay directly for the wall.","url":"https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/","keywords":["Congress","White House","Mexico","Donald Trump","border wall"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11336317c12abea1/6988b7798fd2eeb9b93558c1/gettyimages-632772214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt11336317c12abea1/6988b7798fd2eeb9b93558c1/gettyimages-632772214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a luncheon at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a luncheon at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.","creditText":"Alex Wong—2017 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/","name":"Trump's Plans Mean That the Cost of the Wall Could Be Passed on to U.S. Consumers"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here's How President Trump Says Mexico Could Pay for the Border Wall","description":"White House spokesman Sean Spicer clarified later to reporters that the tax reform bill could involve a 20 percent tax on imports from countries where the United States has a deficit.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tIjF4Rrt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-01-26T22:24:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tIjF4Rrt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/","duration":"PT42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```