The value of the peso took a sharp downturn Thursday after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced he had canceled a meeting with President Trump scheduled for next week.
The peso was down by 1.2 percent at 21.3175 per dollar shortly before noon, Business Insider reported. It had been up by as much as 0.8 percent at 20.9358 per dollar around 8:50 a.m. ET.
Peña Nieto had said via Twitter Thursday morning that he would not be going to the White House to meet with Trump next week
"This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the @POTUS," he wrote.
Trump had criticized the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship earlier in the day with a tweet and said his Mexican counterpart should cancel their planned meeting if he is not willing to pay for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
"The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost," Trump said. "If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting."
Peña Nieto was originally scheduled to meet with Trump next Tuesday. It would have been the first time the two men met since Trump entered the White House.
Mexican opposition figures had called for Peña Nieto to cancel the meeting. They wanted to demonstrate that they do not support the policy of paying for a border wall.
Trump told ABC's David Muir in an interview aired Wednesday that construction for the wall would begin as soon as possible, likely in a matter of months.
"I would say in months, yeah," Trump said.