Trump Will Allow ‘Dreamers’ to Stay in U.S., Reversing Campaign Promise

6/16/2017 The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump has officially reversed his campaign pledge to deport the so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as small children.

The Department of Homeland Security announced late Thursday night that it would continue the Obama-era program intended to protect those immigrants from deportation and provide them work permits so they can find legal employment.

A fact sheet posted on the department’s website says immigrants enrolled in the 2012 program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, “will continue to be eligible” to renew every two years and notes that “no work permits will be terminated prior to their current expiration dates.”

Immigration rights activists, who have fiercely battled Mr. Trump’s travel ban and increased enforcement of other immigration laws, hailed the decision.

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United States and Mexico finalize sugar trade deal

6/14/2017 Reuters

Workers sit next to bags containing sugar at the San Francisco Ameca sugar factory in the town of Ameca, Jalisco, February 18, 2011. REUTERS/Alejandro Acosta/Files

The United States and Mexico on Wednesday finalized terms of a sugar trade pact that seeks to resolve a years-long dispute between the governments before a North American trade deal is renegotiated.

The sugar deal, which was reworked from a 2014 pact, averts imposition of large duties on U.S. imports of Mexican sugar while also addressing U.S. industry demands for protection from cheap, subsidized sugar from its top foreign supplier.

The agreement was initialed by the two governments on Wednesday and opened for public comments for seven days, the U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement.

The news comes a week after U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo announced an agreement in principle.

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After reversing Trump slump, investors say Mexico’s peso has further to go

6/14/2017 Reuters

The Mexican peso touched its highest level in 10 months against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, approaching its highest since May 2016, and its run likely has not run out, some investors say.

The peso fell to its lowest level in history against the dollar on Jan. 19, the day before U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, as traders worried that his campaign pledges to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement and erect a wall between the two countries would weaken the Mexican economy.

But since Trump moved into the White House the peso has been on a tear, rising more than 20 percent against the dollar. It has been the world’s best performing major currency so far this year.

Rhetoric from Trump’s administration has become less corrosive since he took office. This and the Bank of Mexico’s aggressive monetary policy, including unexpectedly raising its benchmark interest rate last month to an eight-year high of 6.75 percent, have helped the peso firm to its highest level since Aug. 16.

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Wilbur Ross seen imposing Mexico sugar deal over industry objections

6/9/2017 Reuters

Reuters/ Aaron P. Berstein

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is likely to impose a new sugar trade deal with Mexico even if final revisions to it fail to win support from the U.S. industry, trade lawyers and experts say.

After announcing a deal this week that would dramatically cut the amount of refined sugar that Mexico ships to the United States, officials from the two countries are working with their industries on final language that would govern its operation.

At issue is a new right of first refusal granted to Mexico to supply all U.S. sugar needs not met by domestic suppliers or other foreign quota holders.

A coalition of American sugar cane and beet farmers and a major refiner want a more explicit guarantee that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not Mexican producers, will dictate what type of sugar fills that gap. They are worried that a flood of refined sugar will pour in, rather than the raw sugar needed to keep U.S. mills running.

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Leaders of Mexico and Germany to meet in ‘solidarity’ against Trump

6/8/2017 Los Angeles Times

Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

In what her government has called “a sign of solidarity,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Friday.

High on the agenda during her two-day state visit to Mexico will be their mutual political dilemma: President Trump.

From the launch of his presidential campaign two years ago through his early days in the White House, Trump made Mexico his punching bag. He called Mexican immigrants criminals, pledged to tax imports from Mexico and insisted that Mexico would pay for construction of a border wall.

But in recent months, he has extended his ire to a much wider circle of nations, many of which, like Mexico, are longtime U.S. allies.

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Mexican state in Trump firing line says U.S. investment holding up

6/8/2017 Reuters

American investment has stayed steady in a Mexican state that was one of the first to suffer at the hands of U.S. President Donald Trump’s drive to bring back jobs from Mexico, the region’s economy minister said on Thursday.

Just a few weeks after his election in November, Trump announced he had struck a deal to stop about 1,000 jobs at U.S. manufacturer Carrier from being moved to its Mexican operations in the industrial state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas.

Soon afterward, carmaker Ford canceled a planned $1.6 billion plant in central Mexico, causing widespread alarm that Trump’s interventions and threats to tear up the NAFTA trade agreement would lead to a collapse in investment in Mexico.

But Fernando Turner, the economy minister of Nuevo Leon, said U.S. companies still were committed to the state and that there had been no slowdown in investment by them because they understand the benefits of Mexico better than Trump does.

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U.S. Racks Up Massive Natural Gas Trade Surplus with Mexico

6/8/2017 Forbes

U.S. energy companies exported $3.7 billion of natural gas to Mexico last year, putting a huge dent in our $7 billion trade deficit with our southern neighbor. In the absence of environmental activists and policymakers blocking proposed pipelines and export terminals, our natural gas trade surplus with Mexico would be even higher.

Mexico’s economy is growing at a steady pace (2.4 percent), translating to steady growth in energy demand. By 2029, Mexico’s natural gas demand is expected to grow by 31 percent. At the same time, Mexican natural gas production is declining, dropping 10 percent during the past year.

Our growing natural gas trade surplus is bringing in tremendous wealth from south of the border. Our natural gas exports to Mexico are expected to double in just the next two years. This growing trade surplus and infusion of wealth is a model that can and should be emulated in our trade with other nations.

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