Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she expects to reach an agreement with the Trump administration over water payments after the latter threatened to impose a 5% tariff if Mexico doesn't meet its obligations.
Speaking during her daily press conference, Sheinbaum said Mexico is constrained in its deliveries due to the country's needs and the size of the pipeline. She noted that releasing 200,000 acre-feet of water before December 31 would not be possible before December 31 as a result, Reuters noted.
Trump made the threat to Mexico in a lengthy social media publication on Monday, saying that missed water deliveries are "seriously hurting our BEAUTIFUL TEXAS CROPS AND LIVESTOCK."
Trump went on to detail that the country owes the U.S. "over 800,000 acre-feet of water for failing to comply with our Treaty over the past five years" and requested the mentioned amount, with the rest coming "soon after."
Should that not happen, Trump said, his administration will impose a "5% tariff on Mexico if this water isn't released IMMEDIATELY." "The longer Mexico takes to release the water, the more our Farmers are hurt. Mexico has an obligation to FIX THIS NOW," he concluded.
The treaty, signed in 1944, requires Mexico to deliver 1,750,000 acre-feet of water from six tributaries to the U.S. every five years. In exchange, the U.S. has to give Mexico 1,500,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River every year.
However, Mexico ended the latest five-year period with a debt of 925,000 acre-feet of water, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
"TCEQ continues to work closely with our federal partners, including the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to have reliability and consistency under the treaty," the agency said in a statement.
Mexico's water commission CONAGUA has constantly argued that the country is not unwilling to comply, just unable to do so. "We want to comply with the treaty – from which both countries benefit greatly. But we are in a drought situation made worse in recent years due to factors such as climate change," a Mexican official told Border Report in late April.
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