Mexican leader to meet Trump

THINK-TANK: GOAL TO AVOID TENSION WITH THE US

Will sign trade agreement between US, Mexico and Canada.

Washington

Mexico’s leader was paying his first foreign visit yesterday in the unlikeliest of circumstances – in the midst of the raging coronavirus pandemic – to US President Donald Trump, who has disparaged his country.

A left-wing populist, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) took office in 2018, refusing to travel overseas but has made his first exception – flying commercially, in economy class, to Washington.

Trump would hardly seem to be an ally, having campaigned for the White House on promises to build a wall on the southern border and on vilifying Mexican immigrants as criminals.

But AMLO, as the Mexican leader is known, has shown a pragmatic streak in managing relations with Trump, mindful that even small actions by the giant neighbour can have enormous consequences for his country.

The official reason for his visit is the launch of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a modified successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement which Trump had branded a killer of working-class US jobs.

Despite coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum, Trump and Lopez Obrador have also been cooperating in the US leader’s efforts to stop Central Americans seeking asylum in the US as they flee violence.

Trump said he expected “quite a meeting” with Lopez Obrador.

“He’s a good man. He’s a friend of mine. And we have a great relationship with Mexico,” he said.

Lopez Obrador said before leaving Mexico: “I want to maintain good relations with the United States. That’s what suits us.”

Lopez Obrador is banking on the new trade agreement to prop up the Mexican economy which is expected to contract 8.8%this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has left more than 30 000 dead in Mexico.

Some Hispanic lawmakers have been aghast at Lopez Obrador’s willingness to meet Trump.

Representative Chuy Garcia, a Democrat from Chicago who was born in Mexico, said Trump was seeking a photo-op with Lopez Obrador to paper over “four years of insults, attacks and damaging policies” toward Latinos as he seeks a new term in the November election.

Michael Shifter, director of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank, said that Mexico’s goal was to avoid tensions with the US – and that Lopez Obrador has succeeded. –