Pompeo Cites Commitments With Mexico But Won't Detail Side Deals
Pompeo said the U.S. and Mexico made “a number of commitments” outside a trade and migration deal but declined to elaborate.
(Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said the U.S. and Mexico made “a number of commitments” outside a trade and migration deal announced last week but declined to elaborate on what President Donald Trump said were agreements not mentioned in the pact -- including one on agricultural sales.
“As for other agreements, there were a number of commitments made,” Pompeo told reporters on Monday. “I can’t go into them in detail here, but each side was committed to a set of outcomes.”
Pompeo’s remarks only deepened the mystery surrounding the extent of the deal, which was reached late on June 7 after days of negotiations and led Trump to back down from his threat to impose tariffs unless Mexico slowed illegal migration into the U.S.
After the deal was reached, Trump tweeted that “some things not mentioned” in a joint declaration had been agreed upon and would be announced at the appropriate time. He also tweeted that Mexico had “agreed to immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers.”
Yet in remarks to Radio Formula earlier Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who led the talks for the Mexican side, said his country hadn’t agreed to any such purchases as part of the talks. Earlier, three Mexican officials had told Bloomberg News that agricultural trade hadn’t even been discussed.
Moments after Pompeo spoke, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus also declined to elaborate when pressed specifically on Trump’s claims about agriculture. She said there would be “more opportunities for agriculture and a host of other commodities and services” with the resolution of the migration dispute and the eventual passage of an updated North American Free Trade Agreement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, John Harney
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.