‘No credit!’ Donald Trump fumes after as his US-Mexico deal comes under scrutiny
- US president angered at media and opponents as agreement to avoid tariffs comes under scrutiny
- On Twitter, Trump still hangs tariff threat over Mexico despite deal
The Trump administration has been forced to defend its immigration agreement with Mexico, amid reports that key provisions in the deal, forged under the threat of trade tariffs, were mostly old commitments agreed to months ago.
A surge in migration to America’s southern border continues, with May bringing the highest number of monthly apprehensions made by US authorities in the past 13 years.
In the deal announced with significant self-congratulation by Donald Trump on Friday, Mexico agreed to deploy its national guard and to expand a heavily criticised programme that keeps migrants seeking asylum in the US in Mexico as their claims are processed.
Trump withdrew a threat of 5 per cent tariffs on all Mexican goods.
But on the weekend The New York Times reported that Mexico had already agreed to key provisions in the joint declaration during secretive negotiations over the past six months.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also said there appeared to be little new in the deal, adding it was a “bogus” solution used by Trump to get out of an ill-conceived tariff threat.
“This is likely to have only a small impact on solving the root causes of Central American migration because many of the components are things Mexico had already said they would do,” Schumer said on Twitter.
On Sunday, the president fired off a series of enraged tweets as he headed for a second day of golf at his course in Sterling, Virginia.
With Mexico deal done, US urges China to resume trade talks
Lamenting what he called “another false report in the Failing New York Times”, he wrote: “If President Obama made the deals that I have made, both at the Border and for the Economy, the Corrupt Media would be hailing them as Incredible, & a National Holiday would be immediately declared.
If Obama made the deals that I have made both at the Border and for the Economy, a National Holiday would be declared Donald Trump
“With me, despite our record setting Economy and all that I have done, no credit!”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, also insisted “all of it is new”, including the agreement to dispatch around 6,000 National Guard troops - a move Mexico has described as an “acceleration.”
“This is the first time we’ve heard anything like this kind of number of law enforcement being deployed in Mexico to address migration, not just at the southern border but also on the transportation routes to the northern border and in coordinated patrols in key areas along our southwest border,” he said, adding that “people can disagree with the tactics” but that “Mexico came to the table with real proposals” that will be effective, if implemented.
Experts warn US-Mexico immigration agreement will increase demand for human traffickers and smuggling
But Trump also warned Mexico that, “if for some unknown reason” cooperation fails, “we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs”.
Still, he said he didn’t believe that would be necessary.
Mexican officials have not confirmed any new agreement on agricultural products. Asked repeatedly about such a deal on CBS on Sunday, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Martha Barcena Coqui, said only that trade would increase without the tariffs.
She said there were many details discussed during negotiations that were not in the written declaration.
She noted Mexico was already a top US trade partner in agricultural products. Mexico is the top importer of US corn, wheat, pork and dairy by volume.
Farmers in the US, usually a reliable base of Republican support, have been hit hard by Trump’s imposition of tariffs on trade with China.
The deal with Mexico clears one obstacle from the path of the USMCA, the deal Trump negotiated to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, in governing trade between the US, Mexico and Canada.
It will still face significant hurdles in Congress.
Additional reporting by Associated Press and Reuters
