The White House says it has yet to determine how Mexico will pay for a massive wall at the border that President Donald Trump has promised to build.

Chief of staff Reince Priebus told CBS Face the Nation that a 'buffet of options' remains.

He says that could include a tax on goods coming across the border, import and export taxes — even a tax on drug cartels or fines to people who come to the US illegally.

Scroll down for video

Chief of staff Reince Priebus said that a 'buffet of options' remains to pay for the wall which Trump authorized in an executive order

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto last week canceled a meeting with Trump amid tensions over Trump's plan to build a wall at Mexico's expense.

Priebus says it's early in the planning process. He says the broader point is that Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise to build the wall.

Trump has repeated his frequent campaign claim that Mexico will, one way or another, 'absolutely, 100 per cent' pay for the wall.

He signed two executive orders on Wednesday which jumpstarts construction of a wall on the border with Mexico, the White House says, the other defunds sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago that harbor illegal immigrants.

Peña Nieto told his nation's diplomatic corps two weeks ago that he has 'differences with the new United States government on some issues, such as a wall that Mexico absolutely will not pay for. At no time will we accept anything that goes against our dignity as a country and our dignity as Mexicans.'

Preibus told CBS: 'It can either be through a tax on goods coming across the border, it could be through tax reform and a formula on import and export taxes and credits, it could be on drug cartels and it could be on people that are coming here illegally and paying fines,' he said.