Trump faces critics over Mexico deal called by ex-WTO chief
Trump – The immigration agreement imposed on Mexico by Donald Trump under the threat of punitive tariffs is a victory for “hostage-taking” over international rules, a former head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Saturday.
In the US, critics of the president began to answer his triumphalism over the deal. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Trump had “undermined America’s pre-eminent leadership role in the world by recklessly threatening” Mexico.
“Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy,” she said.
The New York Times reported that key concessions from Mexico on immigration had in fact been agreed for months.
Late on Friday, Trump announced that the US and Mexico had struck an accord to avert a tariff war. Under the deal, Mexico agreed to expand a contentious asylum program, known as Remain in Mexico, that critics say puts migrants in danger from criminal cartels. The government of Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also committed to deploying security forces to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.
Trump had threatened to slap escalating tariffs of 5% on all Mexican goods from Monday if López Obrador did not do more to tighten his country’s borders.
“My reaction is it seems that hostage-taking works,” Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO from 2005 to 2013, told Reuters, saying Trump’s actions went against the spirit of diplomacy.
“If there’s a rule of law, it’s because people believe it’s better than the law of the jungle. And many people don’t like the law of the jungle because some are strong, some are weak, and they don’t want the strong to always step on the weak.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment, although Trump had spent the day trumpeting his victory on Twitter.
In the morning, he claimed there had been “much false reporting” of his deal “by the fake and corrupt news media, such as Comcast/NBC, CNN, New York Times and Washington Post”.
Source: TheGuardian