President Donald Trump, upset that the nation wasn’t praising his masterful negotiating skills, decided to threaten Mexico with tariffs again if Mexico’s Congress doesn’t approve “an unrevealed part of the migration agreement that the two countries reached last week,” according to Mexico News Daily.
“We have fully signed and documented another very important part of the immigration and security deal with Mexico, one that the U.S. has been asking about getting for many years. It will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico’s legislative body!” Trump said on Twitter.
“We do not anticipate a problem with the vote but, if for any reason the approval is not forthcoming, tariffs will be reinstated!”
President Trump claims huge Mexico win, critics say it's a mirage | Analysis by CNN’s Stephen Collinson tslCpIhDq5
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 11, 2019
According to the New York Times this afternoon, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s top diplomat, said at a news conference in Mexico City that there was an understanding that both sides would evaluate the flow of migrants in the coming months. He added that if Mexico was unable to reduce the number of immigrants crossing the border, both sides had agreed to renew discussions.
However, Ebrard said there is no unrevealed part of the migration agreement and later posted the text of the deal to his Twitter account.
“Let’s have a deadline to see if what we have works, and if not, then we will sit down and look at the measures you propose and those that we propose,” Mr. Ebrard said, describing the understanding reached by negotiators last week.
There have been talks about granting Mexico “safe third country status,” something Mexico has resisted. This means migrants seeking asylum would have to make such a request in the first safe country they crossed, meaning Mexico. However, such a change requires legal changes that would take at least 90 days and would need to be ratified by Mexico’s Congress, according to Reuters.
Trump threatens more #tariffs if second, unrevealed part of #migration accord not approved. pic.twitter.com/xsT1s4JBwm
— Mexico News Daily (@mexicond) June 10, 2019
Mexico to ratify USMCA trade deal next week
Earlier on Monday, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the country’s Senate would hold an extraordinary session in a week’s time and the first item on the agenda would be the ratification of the USMCA trade agreement, formally, NAFTA.
“I can assure you that next week, the Senate will ratify this,” President López Obrador said, adding that would help the legislative process in the US and Canada “greatly,” reports the Financial Times.
The ratification of the trade deal is Mexico’s way of appeasing Trump – at least for a few weeks. This move by Mexico is probably what Trump was talking about when he tweeted about the “unrevealed part of the migration agreement.” If this is the case, it will go over like a lead balloon with both political parties because it would mean Trump has tied Commerce and Immigration issues together – Not a good move.
