US, Mexico Reach Key Water, Screwworm Deals Ahead Of Trade Talks

The US and Mexico reached two key agreements for the agricultural sector on Monday, smoothing over conflicts that threatened to escalate tensions between the neighbors amid trade negotiations brought on by Donald Trump's tariffs.

Mexico committed to deliver water to farmers in Texas after the US complained it had failed to live up to a decades-long deal. The countries also reached an accord on how to fight the New World screwworm pest south of the border, averting potential restrictions on US livestock imports from Mexico.

The resolutions of the deals show Mexico is finding ways to work with the US despite the more confrontational approach of the Trump administration. That bodes well for Mexico as it seeks relief from tariffs Trump is imposing on auto parts, steel and other goods.

The Mexican government committed to transfer water from international reservoirs and increase the US share of the flow in six of Mexico's Rio Grande tributaries through the end of the current five-year water cycle, the US Department of Agriculture said on a statement. The five-year water cycle ends on Oct. 24 of this year, Mexico said in a separate statement.

The deal is based on the 1944 Water Treaty, which established that Mexico must deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water over five years to the US from the Rio Grande, while the US delivers 1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico from the Colorado River, the USDA said. It is unclear how much water Mexico will transfer in the short term.

Read Bloomberg Opinion: The US Water War With Mexico Is Just Starting

“Mexico has agreed with the US to implement a series of measures to mitigate potential shortfalls in water deliveries from Mexico toward the end of the cycle, providing for immediate water transfers, as well as during the next rainy season,” the Mexican Agriculture Ministry said in the statement.

The 1944 Treaty offers benefits for both countries, so“a renegotiation is not considered necessary,” the ministry added.

Crisis avoided

Details of a separate pact to address the New World screwworm pest weren't immediately disclosed, but both sides said Monday that they had a deal. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins had previously warned the US could restrict livestock imports from Mexico again if the country didn't do more to fight the pest, which can cause disease in animals and even kill.

Rollins said during a tour in Ohio that she had spoken with Mexico's Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegue and that they came to an agreement on the screwworm issue, Reuters reported Monday.

Berdegue, for his part, said in a post on X that he and Rollins satisfactorily addressed“the measures that are in the interest of both countries to continue working together to contain and eradicate the cattle screwworm.”

In November, the US Agriculture Department had gone even further, halting imports of cattle from Mexico after detecting one case of screwworm in Chiapas state. They were resumed in January.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has avoided confrontation with Trump and has instead called for a“cool-headed” approach to addressing her US counterpart's grievances, including via direct phone calls between the two leaders. She's won some delays and scaled-back tariffs from Trump, who has said that the concessions he has agreed to are due to his respect for her.

Although Trump exempted Mexico from retaliatory tariffs, the country is still facing levies on goods that are not covered by North America's free trade agreement, along with steel, aluminum and the portion of finished automobiles that aren't made in the US.

Sheinbaum's government has said it is confident of reducing those tariffs and also achieving a successful review of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement. The pact is scheduled to be revisited next year, but the process could be pushed earlier.

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