Brazil, Mexico look to strengthen trade ties as NAFTA talks loom

A Mexican delegation of government and private sector representatives is in talks with Brazilian counterparts to close new supply deals of corn, soy and rice and reduce dependence on U.S. trade, members of the delegation said on Thursday.

In the second day of a three-day mission to Brazil, Raúl Urteaga, general coordinator of international affairs at Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture, said the main purpose of the visit is to accelerate business contacts between the two countries as part of broader efforts to diversify Mexico's trade ties with nations other that the United States.

The delegation also visited Argentina.

"The main reason for the mission this week is to look for Brazilian suppliers of grains," Urteaga said.

Mexico wants to substitute mainly U.S. corn suppliers.

A longer-term objective is to deepen an economic cooperation agreement between Brazil and Mexico. "Both sides are seeking better access to each other markets," Urteaga said without elaborating on any deals closed.

The Mexican visit coincides with looming talks to change the North American Free Trade Agreement and underscores Mexico's concerns about a possible overhaul of the pact with Canada and the United States.

Mexico's agricultural exports, ranging from beer to meat and tequila, total about $30 billion a year, with the U.S. buying 78 percent of the country's agricultural products, Urteaga said.

"The rhetoric coming out of Washington is only focusing on merchandise trade, and what matters here is the total account," he said referring to American companies operating in Mexico, which benefit from the trade of goods and services and can repatriate profits as a result of such exchanges.

Mexico's poultry industry uses about 10 million tonnes of corn and 3 million tonnes of soybean meal as animal feed each year, said César Macías, head of the National Union of Poultry Farmers, who is also in the delegation.

Mexico does not produce the yellow corn needed to feed animals, and the U.S. standing as the country's priority supplier may be coming to an end.

Feed represents 70 percent of chicken and egg production costs, he said.

"Trade with the U.S. is very efficient because of the infrastructure in place but we believe Brazil can also be competitive, especially if it can efficiently ship production out of its northern ports," Macías said.

Source: Reuters

US officials downplay Trump's anti-immigration comments on Mexico

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Thursday downplayed the aggressive comments of President Donald Trump regarding stricter policies on illegal immigration in a tense visit to Mexico City, putting some of the responsibility for the problem on Central America.

"Let me be very, very clear: There will be no - repeat, no - mass deportations. Everything we do in DHS will be done legally and according to human rights and the legal justice system of the United States," Kelly said in a joint statement with Tillerson, along with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray and Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.

Source: EFE

Mexican scientists discover new species of dinosaur

Mexican scientists discovered a new species of dinosaur after a decade of research in the desert of the northern state of Coahuila, the National Science and Technology Council (Concyt) announced Monday.

The discovery of the new species was led by paleontologist Hector Rivera Sylva and biologist Jose Ruben Guzman Gutierrez, both scientists of the Coahuila Desert Museum (MUDE), the institution said in a statement.

Source: EFE

Latino mogul who rejected Cabinet job says Trump presidency won't last long

Billionaire Cuban-American developer Jorge Perez, a friend and business associate of US President Donald Trump for two decades, told EFE here Thursday that he does not expect the former reality television star to remain in office very long.

"If Trump remains on a bad course, they remove him, there's an impeachment or something like that," Perez said during a conversation in one of Mexico City's most exclusive hotels.

Source: EFE

Brazil, Argentina push for closer trade with Mexico in Trump era

The leaders of Brazil and Argentina said on Tuesday they would pursue closer ties with Mexico and other Latin American nations alarmed by U.S. President Donald Trump's promises to tear apart trade deals and build a wall to protect American jobs.

In a state visit to Brasilia, Argentina President Mauricio Macri said that South American regional trade bloc Mercosur would focus on strengthening its relationship with Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy after Brazil.

Trump has abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal that aimed to bolster trade between 12 Pacific Rim nations, including Mexico, Chile and Peru.

In his campaign to keep manufacturing jobs in the United States, Trump has also threatened to slap higher taxes on U.S. companies opening new plants abroad and promised to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Tensions are running particularly high with Mexico after Trump ordered the construction of a wall along its 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with the United States to stop illegal immigration.

Those moves were hailed by Macri, who came to power in 2015 on a business-friendly program, and his Brazilian counterpart Michel Temer as an opportunity to deepen trade ties within Latin America, long overshadowed by Washington's economic might.

"This change in scenario will make Mexico turn to the South with more conviction," Macri said in a statement, after inking a series of small deals with Temer, a centrist who assumed the presidency last year after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Macri said he spoke with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday to discuss deepening cooperation between Mexico and Mercosur and wished him good luck in his dealings with the United States.

DITCHING PROTECTIONISM?

Both Macri and Temer are seeking to open their countries - for decades considered among the most closed economies in the Western Hemisphere - in an effort to revive activity after years of recession.

Some local trade experts say a potential rift between the United States and Mexico could open up space for Latin American nations.

"Mexico represents a great opportunity for Brazil and the region," said Welber Barral, the former international trade secretary for Brazil from 2007 to 2011. "Mexico is a huge importer of agricultural products and its car industry could complement that of Brazil."

Since 2015, Brazil, a major exporter of corn and soy, has been in bilateral negotiations with Mexico to increase commercial ties under a regional trade agreement.

The trade flow between Latin America's biggest economies has dropped nearly 10 percent between 2012 and 2016 to $7.3 billion, roughly the size of commerce between Brazil and the much-smaller Chile.

Both Macri and Temer also hope that the Mercosur can take advantage of the apparent change in the U.S. trade posture to close a free trade deal with the European Union in talks that have dragged on for more than a decade.

After suspending socialist-led Venezuela from Mercosur last year following Caracas' persistent failure to meet entry requirements, Argentina and Brazil are gearing up to extend trade ties. Smaller neighbors Paraguay and Uruguay are also members of Mercosur.

Tensions over market access, however, continue to dog the regional trade bloc. Although Buenos Aires is willing to discuss the entry of Brazilian sugar into its market, its move to increase tax benefits to local auto parts manufacturers has infuriated Brazilian rivals.

In an interview with Brazilian newspapers published on Tuesday, Macri complained about his country's $4.3 billion trade deficit with Brazil.

Source: EFE

U.S.-Mexico crisis deepens as Trump aide floats border tax idea

The White House on Thursday floated the idea of imposing a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for a wall at the southern U.S. border, sending the peso tumbling and deepening a crisis between the two neighbors.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced on Twitter around midday on Thursday that he was scrapping a planned trip to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that Mexico pay for a wall on the U.S. border.

Later in the day, White House spokesman Sean Spicer sent the Mexican peso falling to its low for the day when he told reporters that Trump wanted a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports to pay for construction of the wall.

Spicer gave few details, but his comments resembled an existing idea, known as a border adjustment tax, that the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is considering as part of a broad tax overhaul.

The White House said later its proposal was in the early stages. Asked if Trump favored a border adjustment tax, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said such a tax would be "one way" of paying for the border wall.

"It's a buffet of options," he said.

The plan being weighed by House Republicans would exempt export revenues from taxation but impose a 20 percent tax on imported goods, a significant change from current U.S. policy.

"If you tax exports from Mexico into the United States, you're going to make things ranging from avocados to appliances to flat-screen tvs, you're going to make them more expensive," Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told reporters at the Mexican Embassy in Washington on Thursday night.

Countries like Mexico would not pay such taxes directly. Companies would face the tax if they import products made there into the United States, potentially raising prices for American consumers.

The idea is unpopular with retailers and businesses that sell imported goods in the United States. It also has met opposition from some lawmakers worried about the impact on U.S. consumers.

Trump himself appeared to pan the idea in a Wall Street Journal interview last week, saying the House border adjustment provision was "too complicated."

Even after Trump's comments, congressional Republicans have continued to discuss the issue with White House officials in an effort to bring them on board with the idea.

RIFT WITH MEXICO

Trump, who visited Republican lawmakers at their policy retreat in Philadelphia, told them he would use tax reform legislation to pay for the border wall.

"We're working on a tax reform bill that will reduce our trade deficits, increase American exports and will generate revenue from Mexico that will pay for the wall if we decide to go that route," he said.

Trump, who took office last week, views the wall, a major promise during his election campaign, as part of a package of measures to curb illegal immigration. Mexico has long insisted it will not heed Trump's demands to pay for the construction project.

He signed an executive order for construction of the wall on Wednesday. The move provoked outrage in Mexico. A planned meeting between Videgaray and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was canceled, a department spokeswoman said.

Videgaray said Mexico would work with Trump but that paying for the wall was out of the question.

"There are things that go beyond negotiation," he said. "This is about our dignity and our pride."

Pena Nieto, who had been under pressure to cancel the summit, tweeted on Thursday: "We have informed the White House that I will not attend the working meeting planned for next Tuesday with @POTUS."

Trump had tweeted earlier that it would be better for the Mexican leader not to come if Mexico would not pay for the wall. He said later the meeting was canceled by mutual agreement.

Relations have been frayed since Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, characterizing Mexican immigrants as murderers and rapists. His trade rhetoric has hit the Mexican economy, causing consumers to rein in spending and foreign businesses to wait on new investments, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Trump has vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and slap high tariffs on American companies that have moved jobs south of the border.

Mexico ships 80 percent of its exports to the United States, and about half of Mexico's foreign direct investment has come from its northern neighbor over the past two decades.

The United States runs a $58.8 billion trade deficit with Mexico, according to the latest U.S. government figures. But Mexico is also the United States' second-largest export market.

Source: Reuters

Brazil sees opportunities if Trump pursues protectionism: minister

Brazil has an opportunity to strengthen ties with Pacific and European nations that could be targeted if U.S. President Donald Trump pursues protectionist policies, the Brazilian trade minister said on Thursday.

In an interview with Reuters, Trade Minister Marcos Pereira pointed to Mexico, a longtime competitor for trade and investment in Latin America, as one of the countries that could develop stronger commercial relations with Brazil.

Tensions between Mexico and the United States have risen since Trump took office, with the U.S. president saying he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday scrapped a planned summit with Trump.

Pereira also said he hoped Chile and Peru would gravitate toward Brazil and the South American trade bloc Mercosur now that Trump has pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

He added that Trump's political ascent and arrival in the White House has prompted the European Union to show greater interest in concluding a trade agreement with Mercosur that has been under discussion for 15 years.

At the same time, Brasilia is hoping Trump does not restrict U.S.-Brazilian trade. The United States is Brazil's second-largest trading partner after China and the largest market for its manufactured goods, including commercial planes.

"So far, Brazil has not appeared in Trump's sights," Pereira said. "I think Brazilian manufacturers will not be hurt and that our trade discussions with Washington will continue to advance."

Brazil may not be on Trump's radar because it buys more from the United States than it sells there - running a $646 million deficit last year - and is not drawing investment that threatens U.S. jobs.

'BUSY YEAR'

Mired in its worst recession in a century, Brazil is keen to expand its exports and stands ready to pick up the slack in trade with countries that face setbacks in their access to the U.S. market.

Trade with Mexico, Latin America's second largest economy after Brazil, has the potential to grow as the U.S.-Mexican relationship sours.

"We see this as an opportunity to expand trade and hope they have the same view," Pereira said. "It would be good for Brazil and especially good for the Mexicans who are under pressure."

The minister also came away from the World Economic Forum in Davos last week convinced the EU is keener than ever to reach a deal with Mercosur.

He said an agreement could be agreed politically by early next year, leaving thorny issues such as French and Irish resistance to lower agricultural barriers to be worked out later.

Brazil is in free trade talks with the European Free Trade Association that groups non-EU states Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as with Canada.

The Trudeau government in Canada has also signaled it wants to negotiate a solution to a dispute over subsidies for plane-maker Bombardier that Brazil has threatened to complain about to the WTO, Pereira said.

"It is going to be a busy year with lots of talks between these players to deal with the protectionism that is coming ... given the stance of the new U.S. president," he said.

Source: Reuters

Trump to make trip to Mexico before immigration speech

U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will meet Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday in a hastily arranged visit to Mexico hours before delivering a highly anticipated speech on how he will tackle illegal immigration.

True to Trump's flair for the dramatic, the visit will guarantee widespread news coverage for the former reality TV star. It also carries some risks for him, however, since most foreign visits at the presidential level are long-planned and carefully scripted.

Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, speaking on NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday, portrayed the Republican candidate's visit as a "decisive presidential move." Asked if he would speak to his host in the same blunt terms he has used at home, Conway said Trump would be "very presidential."

"I think they'll have a productive conversation today ... about illegal immigration but also trade policy and drugs," she told NBC.

Trump announced the trip on Twitter on Tuesday night and it was confirmed in another tweet by the Mexican government. "I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow," Trump said.

The private meeting, which Trump and his advisers began considering last week after Pena Nieto's invitation, will be Trump's first official interaction with a foreign leader since he began his presidential campaign more than a year ago.

Such trips can be tricky to navigate. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, suffered a number of gaffes during a trip to London, Israel and Poland four years ago.

Pena Nieto has dismissed Trump's demand that Mexico pay for a border wall that the New York businessman has pledged to build if elected on Nov. 8. "There is no way that Mexico could pay for a wall like that," he told CNN on July 10.

Pena Nieto, who has publicly voiced skepticism about Trump, has been enmeshed in a controversy over whether he plagiarized some of his 1991 undergraduate law thesis.

The talks will take place hours before Trump is to give a major speech on Wednesday night as he seeks to straddle a fine line between being tough on illegal immigration but giving moderate voters a reason to give his candidacy a fresh look.

While he has closed the gap in some areas, Trump still trails Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in most opinion polls nationally and in most battleground states with 10 weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election.

Clinton has also been invited to a meeting with Pena Nieto but it is not yet clear if she has accepted, although her spokeswoman took a dim view of Trump's trip.

"What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions," spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement.

NO AMNESTY

Trump was to deliver his remarks at 6 p.m. MST (09:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday) in Phoenix, Arizona, a state that has been at the heart of the debate over the porous U.S. border with Mexico.

Aides said he would reaffirm his determination to the border wall to curtail new illegal crossings and to quickly deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in the United States.

But the central question facing Trump was how he would treat the majority of the 11 million illegal immigrants who have set down roots in their communities and obeyed U.S. laws, an issue that has bedeviled the immigration debate for years.

Conway told MSNBC on Tuesday that Trump was active in drafting his speech and was dead set against any proposal that might be seen as providing amnesty to illegal immigrants.

"The point that Mr. Trump has made again and again is that you don't get amnesty and you don't get legalization since you broke the law to be here in the first place," she said. "But then he also respects it's a complex issue."

Conway told NBC on Wednesday that voters would know exactly where Trump stands on immigration following the speech, including his position on what to do about the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Trump has shown signs of indecision on whether to go ahead with his previous proposal for a "deportation force" to deport the 11 million people, saying there are some "great people" among the immigrant population and that he would like to work with them.

He was pressed in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity last week on whether he was open to any steps that might accommodate law-abiding people who had built strong family ties in the United States.

"There certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people," Trump said in his response. "We want people - we have some great people in this country."

FINE LINE

Suggestions of a softening by Trump and his campaign advisers prompted conservative allies like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to caution him against rolling back on a central pledge that helped him defeat 16 rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

A move by Trump to moderate his stance on immigration could help him attract more support among swing voters in his uphill drive to win in November, but some of his conservative backers could be disenchanted.

"It's vitally important that he not disappoint his supporters because they are the people who are with you through thick and thin and when you start to thin your base in hopes of adding other people to your base, it just never works," said Republican strategist Barry Bennett, a Trump supporter.

Trump has already laid out parts of his immigration policy and they resemble some past Republican attempts at immigration reform, like using an E-verify system to ensure that employers hire properly documented workers, and swift deportation of immigrants who have committed crimes.

He has also vowed to stop some major cities' practice of providing sanctuary for illegal immigrants and to stop immigrants from overstaying their visas.

Source: Reuters

Illegal logging in Mexico monarch butterfly reserve falls 40 pct.

Illegal logging inside Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve declined by 40 percent in 2015-2016, conservation group WWF said Tuesday.

In the core of the reserve, which comprises forests in the central state of Mexico and neighboring Michoacan, illegal logging extended to 11.92 hectares (29.43 acres), a significant reduction from the 19.9 hectares registered in the 2014-2015 season.

Source: EFE

Mexican cops executed 22 civilians, rights committee says

Officers of Mexico's Federal Police executed 22 civilians during a May 2015 operation on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan, the independent National Human Rights Commission said Thursday.

Police committed grave violations of human rights at Rancho del Sol, commission chairman Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez told a press conference.

A total of 43 people, including a police officer, died at the ranch and 22 of those deaths were the result of "arbitrary execution," the chairman said as he presented the conclusions of the commission's investigation.

"Excessive use of force" was the cause of four other civilian fatalities and a fifth person appeared to have been run over by a vehicle, according to the report.

Authorities have maintained that the deaths at Rancho del Sol took place in the course of a gunfight between police and suspects.

The commission, however, determined that police tampered with the scene by placing guns next to 16 bodies and that the officers involved submitted false accounts of the events.

The human rights commission also found fault with the actions of investigators from the Michoacan Attorney General's Office, who deviated from protocol and mishandled ballistics evidence.

Medical examiners likewise came under criticism for irregularities in the autopsies and delays in the return of bodies to their families.

Responding to the rights commission document, the chairman of Mexico's National Security Committee rejected the characterization of arbitrary executions and defended the actions of police.

"The use of arms was necessary and the police acted, in our judgment, in legitimate defense," Renato Sales said.

Source: EFE

Small town in Mexico honors meteorite that changed life on Earth

A three-faced monolith and a rock hewn in the shape of a bone with a misspelled text carved on it mark the site in this town, located 1,355 kilometers (842 miles) east of Mexico City, where the impact of a giant meteorite 65 million years ago initiated the massive extinction of Cretaceous-era species.

The monument, with crude depictions of dinosaurs, can be found in the central square, facing the church and police station in Chicxulub Puerto, a town of 10,000 on the Yucatan Peninsula's coast some 35 kilometers (19 miles) north of Merida, and away from the tourism hotspots of Cancun and Cozumel.

Source: EFE

Mexico, Venezuela advance to Copa America knockout phase

Mexico and Venezuela advanced to the Centennial Copa America knockout phase with Group C round-robin victories over Jamaica and Uruguay, respectively.

Mexico's early domination of ball possession led to a goal in the 16th minute of Thursday night's game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, when Jesus Manuel Corona set up Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez for a perfectly placed header that snuck just inside the right post off the fingertips of Jamaican net minder Andre Blake.

Mexico then managed to preserve that lead for the remainder of the first half, with defender Yasser Corona getting in the way of one shot inside the area by Garath McCleary and goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa turning back another by Jobi McAnuff after some shoddy defense by El Tri.

The Mexicans' attack stalled in the latter part of the first half but came alive after the intermission, eventually leading to a second goal in the 81st minute on a left-footed strike by Oribe Peralta that snuck inside the far post.

Jamaica thought it deserved a penalty in the 64th minute when Nestor Araujo appeared to foul striker Clayton Donaldson in the box, but the referee did not blow his whistle.

With the 2-0 win, Mexico clinched a quarterfinal berth and will play Venezuela on Monday in Houston to determine first place in Group C.

In Thursday night's first game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Venezuela - a traditional baseball powerhouse that has made strides in recent years on the soccer field - advanced to the knockout stage with a 1-0 victory over Uruguay.

The Uruguayans did not manage a single shot on goal in the entire first half, while also appearing out of sorts in midfield and playing porous defense.

Venezuela capitalized in the 36th minute when Alejandro Guerra fired a shot from midfield that nearly surprised goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.

The net minder managed to tip the ball off the crossbar, but Salomon Rondon was there to knock it home at close range.

Uruguay had chances to tie the game, but Cristhian Stuani misfired off a corner kick early in the second half and Edinson Cavani fired wide to squander a golden one-on-one opportunity against goalkeeper Dani Hernandez with time winding down.

Uruguay will take on Jamaica, both already eliminated from this hemispheric competition, on Monday in Santa Clara, California, in the final Group C matchup.

Source: EFE