Senate panel passes new North American trade deal, moving it closer to ratification

January 8, 2020

Source: CNBC

By: Jacob Pramuk

(CNBC) In a 25-3 vote, the panel sent the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to the full Senate, which could pass the pact this month. The House approved the accord last month in a bipartisan vote.

USMCA backers, led by President Donald Trump, have called the deal a long-needed overhaul of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. The new pact makes several changes to protect auto industry workers, increases access to Canadian dairy markets for U.S. farmers and updates digital trade rules.

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Read our report on North America’s New Free Trade Agreement: Impacts on the North American Auto Sector

Trump says he will hold off designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups

12/6/19 – Reuters

“President Donald Trump said on Friday he will temporarily hold off designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations at the request of Mexico’s president.”

Reporting by Eric Beech and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Edwina Gibbs

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U.S. State Department says it is working with Mexico on tools to fight drug cartel threat

12/04/19 – Reuters

By Humeyra Pamuk

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said it was working with Mexico’s government to identify the “appropriate tools” to help it tackle the threats that drug cartels pose, after President Donald Trump last week said he wanted to designate them as terrorist groups.

Trump’s announcement alarmed Mexico, which rejected it as “interventionism” and said it would respond in kind to such a move. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, for instance, that Mexico would not permit another operation like the U.S. government’s ill-fated “Fast and Furious” gun-running sting.

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Mexicans sue Walmart over Texas shooting that left victims on both sides of border

Via Flikr – elmada

11/20/19 – Reuters

By Julia Love

Ten Mexican citizens have sued Walmart over the shooting at a store in the U.S. border town of El Paso, Texas, that killed eight Mexicans and left eight more injured, saying that Walmart did not do enough to protect its customers, Mexico said on Wednesday.

The suspected gunman told police he was targeting “Mexicans” in the August shooting, which killed 22 people in total.

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Pete Buttigieg says he’s open to sending U.S. troops to Mexico

11/17/19 – The Sacramento Bee

By Bryan Anderson

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said at a Latino forum in Los Angeles on Sunday that he’d be willing to send U.S. troops into Mexico to combat gang and drug violence.

“There is a scenario where we could have security cooperation,” Buttigieg said.

Even so, he added a caveat: “I’d only order American troops into conflict if American lives were on the line and if it was necessary to meet treaty obligations.”

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Supreme Court weighs whether Mexican family can sue in US

11/13/19 – AP News

By Colleen Long

The Supreme Court’s left-leaning justices on Tuesday appeared willing to allow a lawsuit filed by the parents of a Mexican teenager shot over the border by an American agent, but the case will depend on whether they can persuade a conservative colleague to join them.

The high court heard arguments in a 2010 case where Border Patrol Agent Jesus Mesa Jr. fired into Mexico, striking and killing Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca. The case centered on whether the family could sue the agent in an American court for violating their son’s rights.

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Pence upbeat that Congress will pass USMCA trade deal this year

 

Vice President Micheal Pence poses for his official portrait at The White House, in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, October 24, 2017. (Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen)

09/18/19 – Reuters

By Andrea Shalal

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday said he believed Congress would act to pass a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement this year, providing important momentum for the U.S. economy.

Pence told a packed audience at the Heritage Foundation think tank that passage of USMCA would create jobs and trigger increased investment in the United States, while helping President Donald Trump reach a trade deal with China.

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