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WASHINGTON DC – A trade war between the U.S. and Mexico has been averted with a last minute deal.

U.S.  President Donald Trump had threatened to impose import duties on goods made in Mexico, commencing on Monday.

The 5% tariff was to incfrease every month.

News of the deal came via Twitter posts from Trump and Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.

Trump spent the week pressing Mexico to take action to secure its borders and help stem immigration into the U.S.

“I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico,” Trump tweeted on Friday night. “The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended. Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States. Details of the agreement will be released shortly by the State Department. Thank you!”

Later in a joint statement released by the U.S. state department, it was revealed Mexico will take “unprecedented” steps to curb irregular migration and human trafficking, deploy its National Guard throughout the country from Monday, and deploy up to 6,000 additional troops along Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala.

The U.S. in turn has agreed to expand its programme of sending asylum seekers back to Mexico while they reviewed their claims.

The agreement is subject to finalisation in 90 days.

“I think it was a fair balance, because they have more drastic measures and proposals at the start, and we have reached some middle point,” Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard told a press conference in Mexico.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the agreement,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a separate news conference in the U.S.

Will Grant, BBC’s Mexico and Central America correspondent said Friday it was unclear whether it was internal pressure within the U.S. president’s party or the measures being offered by Mexico that dissuaded Mr Trump from implementing the plan. Or perhaps it was simply an appreciation of its potential consequences.

“It became apparent during the talks just how intertwined the two neighbouring economies are, and many argued that a 5% tax on all Mexican goods would hurt U.S. suppliers and customers too,” Grant wrote.

“Furthermore, damaging the already fragile Mexican economy could have pushed it into a full recession and created more migrants heading north in search of work.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador meantime was getting criticised on Friday for bowing to the U.S. president.

Ángel Ávila Romero, a senior member of the left-wing PRD party, said the agreement was “not a negotiation, it was a surrender,” the BBC reported.