THE FINAL WORD
set of demands that we put on every country that we trade with. We hope the Chinese will see that that’s in their 1 billion people’s best interest, but so far, the Chinese Communist Party has said that this is not something that they’re prepared to live with. Q: What needs to be done by our Mexican counterparts to meet the Trump deadline?What have they done so far and where are there still some areas that might need to be further negotiated? SECRETARY POMPEO: So we’re now just about 45 days after the agreement that the State Department worked out with Marcelo Ebrard and his ministry, foreign ministry here in Mexico. We’ve made real progress. There’s a whole lot more enforcement on the Mexican side, both on their southern border and increased enforcement on their northern border as well. We now have processes – the Migration Protection Protocols – that are being executed. It has reduced the number of illegal transits coming across our border, but it’s still too high. There’s still more work that needs to be done. We need to do this cooperatively; we [need to] find methodologies. There’s no silver bullet, but we need to create a model that deters these people from taking this track which is so dangerous and so harmful to so many people leaving the Northern Triangle and transiting through Mexico. Q: I understand you’ll be in El Salvador, part of the Northern Triangle. Howare they handling their end of the partnership here to deal with this crisis? What do we expect from them, what do we want from them, and what can they do?
Q: What can you tell us about the status of the ongoing discussions with the Chinese to get some kind of trade agreement? Obviously, what has been called a trade war has been going on for quite some time. I know the president said there’s been some good stuff recently without a whole lot of specifics.
Where are we and what are the stumbling blocks?
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There’s no silver bullet, but we need to create a model that deters these people from taking this track which is so dangerous and so harmful to so many people leaving the Northern Triangle and transiting through Mexico.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Buck, I can’t give you many more specifics either. I had an update earlier this week on the status of the negotiations between the Chinese and Secretary Mnuchin and Ambassador Lighthizer. They’re moving forward. In the end, the stumbling blocks are this central set of issues. It is how is China going to engage in the world. Are they going to continue to steal intellectual property? Are they going to continue to force American businesses that participate and invest in their economy to transfer technology? Do they want the rule of law? Are they prepared to lower their tariffs so that they’re equitable, fair, and reciprocal? Those are the things that are being negotiated. Those are sort of the
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August 2019
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