Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he's optimistic of achieving "good results" from a high-level meeting this week in Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to levy tariffs on his country.
Lopez Obrador on Saturday reiterated recent remarks that he wants to maintain good relations with Trump, calling the U.S. leader his "friend." However, seeking international arbitration is still an option for his country, he said.
"We don't want this confrontation with the U.S.," Lopez Obrador said from the Mexican port city of Veracruz. "We are not going to get involved in trade wars or in struggles of hegemony or powers."
Trump has threatened in the past week to impose a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico if the country doesn't curb an unprecedented surge in migrants over the U.S. southern border. On Wednesday, a Mexican delegation led by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard will meet with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and other officials to attempt to defuse the trade spat.
Mexico has given few details on how it plans to stem the influx of migrants, though Lopez Obrador said on Saturday that his country is doing its part. He also made clear Mexico wouldn't rule out seeking international recourse even though he's optimistic the two neighbors could resolve the crisis at the border.
"If necessary, we would go to international tribunals as contemplated in the free trade agreement and in the accords of international trade organizations," he said.
Influential business groups are also worried that Trump's threatened tariffs against Mexico could derail the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, the proposed replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"The last thing we want to do is put that landmark deal -- and the 2 million manufacturing jobs that depend on North American trade -- in jeopardy," said Jay Timmons, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Manufacturers.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it was considering legal action to block the tariffs from going into effect.
Some GOP senators are rankled, too, most notably Charles Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
"This is a misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent," Grassley said.
Congressional aides from both parties said that it's too soon to say whether Trump's proposal will derail the trade agreement. But it does make it harder for lawmakers to assess how the agreement would improve the economic landscape if the tariffs on Mexico go into place.
Hours before Trump announced his tariff plan, his administration tried to set up the agreement for a possible congressional vote before the August recess. The administration completed the formal steps necessary to start the clock for submitting legislation to Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that was "not a positive step" and "indicates a lack of knowledge on the part of the administration on the policy and process to pass a trade agreement."
Before the threatened tariffs, both parties were upbeat about trade talks. Some Republicans had said their vote on the trade agreement was contingent on the end of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico, and they were pleased when Trump decided to remove those tariffs.
The administration also had committed to meeting with a group of House Democrats to allay their concerns. That gesture created good will, and Pelosi said it put Democrats "on a path to yes."
But now it's unclear where that path may lead. Pelosi still holds the final say in determining when, or if, the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement comes up for a vote.
Pelosi joined several Republican senators in criticizing Trump's tariff threat, saying it is "not rooted in wise trade policy but has more to do with bad immigration policy on his part."
"Yet again, the president is sowing chaos over the border instead of delivering solutions for American workers and for American consumers," Pelosi said.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the tariffs should not jeopardize passage of the trade pact and that the president simply wants Mexico to do more to stem the flow of migrants.
Conway told reporters Friday that "tariffs are a good way to get a trading partner's attention, and apparently it did."
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Rosati of Bloomberg News; and by Kevin Freking, Rob Gillies and Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/02/2019