The deal that Trump announced would avert tariffs on Mexico reportedly mostly includes things Mexico agreed to do months earlier

Michelle Mark

Jun 9, 2019, 06:55 IST

The deal that Trump announced would avert tariffs on Mexico reportedly mostly includes things Mexico agreed to do months earlier

Associated Press/Jacquelyn Martin

President Donald Trump claps after greeting supporters waiting at the White House with first lady Melania Trump as they returned to the White House, Friday June 7, 2019, in Washington.

President Donald Trump announced a new deal on Friday to avert major tariffs on all imports from Mexico into the United States.
Trump had vowed to impose the tariffs on June 10 if Mexico did not crack down on migrants traveling through the country en route to the US.
But the deal announced Friday contains few new concessions from Mexico, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Instead, the deal contains actions that Mexico had agreed to months earlier.
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The deal with Mexico that President Donald Trump said Friday would avert his impending tariffs mostly contains actions that Mexico had agreed to months ago, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Among the items included in the agreement was a promise to deploy Mexico's National Guard throughout the country and its southern border - but officials from both countries say the Mexican government had already vowed to do so in March, according to The Times.

Another part of the deal was to expand Mexico's cooperation with a Trump administration effort to force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases move through the US immigration court system. But Mexico had actually agreed to the arrangement in December, The Times reported.

Throughout the last week, Trump administration negotiators tried to convince the Mexican government to adopt what's known as a "safe third country" agreement, which would force most migrants to seek asylum in Mexico, rather than the United States. But Mexican officials resoundingly rejected the policy.

Associated Press/Eduardo Verdugo

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrives at a rally in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, June 8, 2019.

But President Donald Trump has praised the Mexican president for his cooperation.

"I would like to thank the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, together with all of the many representatives of both the United States and Mexico, for working so long and hard to get our agreement on immigration completed!" Trump tweeted Saturday.

Trump also tweeted Saturday morning that Mexico had agreed to "immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers." Mexico agreed to no such thing, Bloomberg News reported, citing three Mexican officials.

The Times reported that it's unclear whether Trump understands that the deal with Mexico includes few major concessions, or whether he has simply touted the agreement as a way to save face, amid tariffs that experts agreed would damage both countries' economies.