Did Trump Make Up the Claim About Mexico Buying More U.S. Farm Goods?

By David Boddiger  |  June 9, 2019 | 2:58pm
Trump Administration

The story about the Trump administration’s negotiations with
Mexican officials over immigration and the threat of tariffs continued for a
second day to raise more questions, prompted by dubious claims by the
president.

First, Trump claimed
a last-minute victory to avoid placing 5% tariffs on goods imported from
Mexico in exchange for Mexico’s promise to do more to stop the flow of migrants
through its country to the southern U.S. border. As it turned out, everything
Mexican officials agreed to already
had been negotiated months before, according to The New York Times.

Nevertheless, Trump continued tweeting about the so-called
deal throughout the weekend, criticizing “[a]nother false report in the Failing @nytimes.”

“We have been trying to get some of these Border Actions for
a long time, as have other administrations, but were not able to get them, or
get them in full, until our signed agreement with Mexico,” Trump tweeted on
Sunday. He bizarrely claimed that there now would be “great cooperation between Mexico & the USA, something that didn’t exist for decades.”

Trump also alluded to an agreement that wasn’t included in
the joint
declaration made public by the State Department on Friday, which he said
would “be announced at the appropriate time.”

That may have been a reference to a previous tweet in
all-caps that no one could figure out, including Mexican officials. Trump
claimed on Saturday that Mexico had agreed to “immediately begin buying large
quantities” of agricultural goods “from our great patriot farmers.”

But there’s no mention of Mexico buying more U.S. farm
products in the joint declaration. And Bloomberg reported that three Mexican
officials were unaware of any additional agreements. Agricultural trade wasn’t
even discussed during the three-day negotiations, they said.

Neither the State Department nor the White House responded
to questions about Trump’s claims about agricultural goods.

Per Bloomberg:

Mexico is already a large buyer of U.S. farm goods,
including corn, soybeans, pork and dairy products. It had given no indication
of attempting to find alternative suppliers during the standoff over Trump’s
proposed steep tariffs on Mexican goods.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in May forecast U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico in
the current fiscal year at $19.7 billion, about 14% of total U.S. farm exports
and up from $18.8 billion in fiscal 2018. Mexico is second only to Canada as a
market for U.S. farm goods.

The report also noted that the Mexican government isn’t even
structured to buy and distribute food products or farm equipment.

So what gives?

One additional development is reported at the end of Bloomberg’s
story: The Trump campaign used the announcement of the agreement with Mexico to
fundraise. “His campaign sent out a ‘donate now’ email that read in part, ‘Art
of the Deal! Mexico has agreed to help END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. Promises Made.
Promises Kept,’” Bloomberg reported.

Art of the deal, indeed.

Read
the entire report.

 
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