‘Very unfair’: Trump threatens extra 5% tariff on Mexico over water dispute | Trump tariffs

Donald Trump has threatened to impose an extra 5% tariff on Mexico if it doesn’t instantly present extra water to assist US farmers, accusing the nation of violating a treaty that outlines water-sharing between the neighbors.Underneath the treaty, which dates again to 1944, Mexico should ship 1.75m acre-feet of water to the US from the Rio Grande via a community of interconnected dams and reservoirs each 5 years. The settlement additionally stipulates that the USA should yearly allocate 1.5m acre-feet of water from the Colorado River to Mexico.The water from the Rio Grande is used to help agriculture in Texas and different US border states.In a submit on Reality Social on Monday, the president mentioned that Mexico “owes” the US 800,000 acre-feet of water as a result of violations of the treaty over the previous 5 years.He demanded Mexico launch 200,000 acre-feet of water earlier than 31 December, and extra “quickly after”.The dearth of water was hurting crops and livestock in Texas, Trump mentioned.“As of now, Mexico will not be responding, and it is rather unfair to our U.S. Farmers who deserve this a lot wanted water,” Trump added. “That’s the reason I’ve licensed documentation to impose a 5% Tariff on Mexico if this water isn’t launched, IMMEDIATELY.”A spokesperson for Mexico’s financial system ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.In April, the US agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, mentioned that Mexico had agreed to extend its water shipments to Texas to assist make up a shortfall beneath the 1944 treaty.Mexico has argued that it’s beneath drought circumstances which have strained the nation’s water assets. Whereas local weather crisis-induced drought performs a big position within the Rio Grande’s depletion, overconsumption and mismanagement have additionally contributed to its present state. A latest World Wildlife Research discovered that 52% of the water consumed from the Rio Grande is unsustainable, which means that it’s contributing to total depletion of reservoirs, aquifers and the river itself.The research additionally discovered that water shortages have led to the lack of 18% of farmland within the river’s headwaters in Colorado, 36% alongside the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and 49% within the Pecos River tributary in New Mexico and Texas.skip previous publication promotionGet an important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you each morningPrivacy Discover: Newsletters could include details about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by outdoors events. In case you wouldn’t have an account, we’ll create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this text. You’ll be able to full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your knowledge see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after publication promotionThis will not be the primary time the delay of water from Mexico has brought on political tensions. In Could 2024, 10 US lawmakers from bipartisan congressional districts urged Congress to withhold cash from Mexico till it delivered the water. The group wrote that along with jeopardising crops, “the shortage of dependable water supply impacts municipalities and threatens the standard of life for a lot of Americans residing alongside our border”.Texas’s agricultural trade has seen important penalties from lack of water, together with the closure of the state’s final sugar processing mill.Trump’s menace to Mexico follows the revealing of a $12bn financial help package deal on Monday for farmers negatively affected by the tariff-induced commerce wars.“This aid will present much-needed certainty to farmers as they get this 12 months’s harvest to market and sit up for subsequent 12 months’s crops, and it’ll assist them proceed their efforts to decrease meals costs for American households,” Trump mentioned throughout a roundtable dialogue of American agriculture.About $11bn of the $12bn aid package deal will come from the agriculture division’s Farmer Bridge Help (FBA) program. The cash will go to producers of corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, rice, wheat and different row crops, in accordance with the USDA’s announcement, and is predicted to be launched in February 2026. The remaining $1bn might be reserved for producers not coated by the FBA program, together with specialty crops and sugar, however the USDA mentioned that the timeline for these funds was nonetheless beneath improvement.