World Bulletin / News Desk

Mexico will walk away from talks on revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement if US President Donald Trump slaps tariffs on Mexican-made goods, the economy minister says.

"The moment that they say, 'We're going to put a 20 percent tariff on cars,' I get up from the table," said Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo.

"Bye-bye," he added in an interview with Bloomberg News published Monday.

The comments ratchet up Mexico's threats to boycott a renegotiation of its 1994 trade deal with the United States and Canada if Trump insists on hardline changes.

Trump has repeatedly trashed NAFTA as part of a tough stance on trade that has included threats to slap tariffs on imports from Mexico.

He has also floated tariffs as a way to pay for his plan to build a wall on the Mexican border, which he argues is needed to stop undocumented immigrants and drug trafficking.

Bilateral trade between Mexico and the United States amounts to half a trillion dollars a year, and some 80 percent of Mexican exports go to the United States.

But Trump has said America's $60 billion trade deficit with Mexico proves NAFTA was a bad deal.