Tough task for Tillerson in Mexico, south of Trump’s wall
MEXICO CITY: Washington’s top diplomat was to sit down yesterday with the leader of the country that President Donald Trump has perhaps disparaged more than any other, the United States’ neighbour Mexico.
As he confronts the first stage on his first Latin American tour since being named secretary of state, former oilman Rex Tillerson will talk trade, crime and immigration with President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Before setting off, Tillerson laid out a vision of the US and Latin America – the “democratic hemisphere” – working together to build a prosperous future, but first he will have to overcome the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive brand of diplomacy.
Trump has called the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) “perhaps the worst deal in the history of the world,” has said immigrants from across the southern border bring crime with them and remains determined to build a frontier wall.
On some positions, Trump has softened his rhetoric since his inauguration a year ago, but in this week’s State of the Union address he spoke more about cross-border crime and immigration than any other foreign policy topic.
Pena Nieto, meanwhile, is under pressure at home not to give up too much ground to his pushy northern neighbour, even though Mexico and Canada are keen to save Nafta from Trump’s threat to rip it up and start anew.
Tillerson, in Latin America to build support for a tough stance against Venezuela’s beleaguered government and make the case for closer economic ties and warn of Chinese encroachment, is not the US trade representative and could do without the row.
But, when he sits down on with Pena Nieto and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland, the trade deal will be in the foreground of their agenda, and he has adopted an optimistic approach, whatever Trump’s rhetoric.
“I’m a Texan, former energy executive, and I’m also a rancher. I understand how important Nafta is for our economy and that of the continent,” Tillerson told students at his alma mater, the University of Texas, on Thursday before flying south. —