Trade Policy and Tariffs

President Trump again threatened a 5% tariff on Mexico via Truth Social unless Mexico immediately releases more Rio Grande water, saying he has “authorized documentation” to impose the duty — a reprise of an April confrontation when Mexico instead agreed to transfer reserves and boost flows and tariffs were not imposed. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government will seek a solution that helps the U.S. without risking Mexican people or agriculture, noting immediate delivery of 200,000 acre-feet is constrained by pipe sizes and other physical limits and that the 1944 treaty allows deferred deliveries after the extraordinary 2023–24 drought; U.S. and Mexican officials, including USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and acting foreign minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez, met Tuesday in the fifth meeting this year to try to resolve the dispute.