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Mexico has reached a deal to ship extra water to the US below a decades-old treaty, calming a dispute that had threatened commerce relations between the neighbouring nations.
Below a Forties border accord, the US sends Mexico water from the Colorado River annually, whereas Mexico sends water north from the Rio Grande, with any shortfalls addressed below a particular mechanism.
However Mexico had fallen behind on deliveries previously few years amid a extreme drought, angering farmers and companies in components of southern Texas that relied on the useful resource.
The US State Division stated on Monday that Mexico had agreed to an instantaneous switch of water and a long-term plan to satisfy future necessities, hailing it as a victory for US President Donald Trump.
The settlement comes as the 2 international locations are locked in high-stakes talks on tariffs that Trump has imposed on US imports from Mexico.
Mexico’s leftwing President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Tuesday that she had co-ordinated with governors within the border states of Coahuila, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas to agree on an unspecified amount to ship north.
“We’re delivering what we can,” she stated. “It was several weeks of work to find a scheme that can give the US the water we owed without putting us at risk.”
Sheinbaum stated the main points of the settlement could be specified by an announcement. Excessive ranges of home water stress imply it’s a politically delicate subject.
Final month US President Donald Trump halted water shipments to Tijuana till Mexico complied with the treaty, additionally threatening tariffs and sanctions.
“This is very unfair and is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly,” he wrote on Reality Social.
Sheinbaum has largely been accommodating in the direction of Trump, avoiding public criticism of him and acceding to his calls for to attempt to keep Mexico’s tariff-free entry to the US below its commerce deal USMCA.
At current, exporters exterior the pact are topic to 25 per cent tariffs, as do completed vehicle and metal and aluminium merchandise.
Whereas criticising Mexico extra broadly, Trump has in flip largely been complimentary in the direction of Sheinbaum, with the State Division on Monday thanking her for her private involvement in facilitating co-operation.
Mexico is below excessive ranges of water stress, with residents in components of its main cities — together with the capital Mexico Metropolis — usually going with out water. As of this month, some 18 per cent of the nation’s municipalities are experiencing some degree of drought, significantly within the north-west of the nation, in response to authorities knowledge.
The problem has been a central concern for buyers who largely wish to arrange factories within the extra water-stressed centre and northern components of the nation, that are additionally Mexico’s industrial bases.
The agriculture and livestock industries use the most important portion of water assets, and Sheinbaum is pushing a programme of irrigation know-how for farmers.
