Mexico expects relief on U.S. tariff threat after migrant flows drop

Asylum seekers wait in line to get a meal near the international bridge after crossing to the U.S. to seek asylum and being sent back to wait for their court date in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico on August 22, 2019. (REUTERS File)

MEXICO CITY, September 6 (Reuters): Mexico does not expect the United States to threaten to put tariffs on its goods when it holds talks next week with U.S. officials about its efforts to curb migration from Central America, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Friday.

Speaking at a regular government news conference alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Ebrard said Mexico had reduced the flow of undocumented migrants crossing the country toward the U.S. border by 56% between May and August.

At the end of May, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to put tariffs on all Mexican exports to the United States if Mexico did not significantly curb a recent surge in illegal immigration from Central America into the United States.

In June, the two sides agreed to a 90-day window for Mexico to reduce the migrant flows after it agreed to deploy thousands of security forces to its borders and began taking more asylum-seekers from the United States while their cases were being processed.

That period ended this week, and Ebrard is due to hold talks with U.S. officials on Tuesday to discuss Mexico's efforts.

Mexico's position would be that the strategy has been a success, Ebrard told the news conference.

"I don't expect there to be a tariff threat on Tuesday," Ebrard said, pointing to the reduction in migrant flows.

The minister reiterated that Mexico would not accept becoming a so-called safe third country, which would oblige migrants to seek asylum in Mexico rather than the United States.

Trump has lauded the Mexican government for curbing flows since the June deal. By July, apprehensions at the U.S. southern border had dropped by about a third, according to American data. Trump said this week that trend has continued.

"I want to thank Mexico, the Mexican government, their great President of Mexico, for helping us," he told reporters on Wednesday. "They’re helping us in a very big way. Far bigger than anybody thought even possible."

Ebrard said the Mexican government would keep investing in social programs in the south of Mexico as well as in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the three Central American countries where most migrants depart from.

"This reduction of 56% in the flow of migrants is a result of diverse measures that the government has taken, in compliance with the Mexican migration law," he said.

Ebrard said that there had been only seven official complaints about human rights violations by Mexican forces.