After President Donald Trump and his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Peña Nieto, cancelled their meeting to discuss trade, border security and immigration, the liberal mainstream media reported it was a “diplomatic disaster.”
Less than 24 hours later, the two leaders discussed matters over the phone in what was described as a “productive and constructive” conversation. Following the phone call, the White House issued the following joint statement from Trump and Nieto:
The United States President Donald J. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke by phone this morning for an hour. The call was mutually arranged by their teams.
The two had a productive and constructive call regarding the bilateral relationship between the two countries, the current trade deficit the United States has with Mexico, the importance of the friendship between the two nations, and the need for the two nations to work together to stop drug cartels, drug trafficking and illegal guns and arms sales.
With respect to payment for the border wall, both presidents recognize their clear and very public differences of positions on this issue but have agreed to work these differences out as part of a comprehensive discussion on all aspects of the bilateral relationship.
Both presidents have instructed their teams to continue the dialogue to strengthen this important strategic and economic relationship in a constructive way.
That statement was meant to be more beneficial for Nieto than for Trump. The Mexican president, who reportedly was supported by the very drug cartels the U.S. is combating at its southern border, has become wildly unpopular in his own country.
That’s because the nation’s economy is tanking badly, and has been for the past eight years.
Prior to NAFTA, which Trump has said he plans to scrap, the Mexican peso was worth about 25 cents in the U.S. At the start of the Obama administration, it had fallen to just 11 cents. After Nieto cancelled his trip to Washington, D.C., it fell to less than 5 cents.
As of this writing, it is currently worth 4.8 cents. That makes every product that comes into Mexico from the U.S. more expensive. But not only that, it makes every imported product, regardless of where it comes from, more expensive—because international trade is conducted in dollars.
Expect to see Nieto at the negotiating table with Trump very soon. {eoa}
