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LatinNews Daily - 12 November 2018

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US praises Ecuador’s efforts to combat drug trafficking

Brazil: On 6 November the president of the US Cattlemen's Association (USCA), Kenny Graner, issued a statement in response to news that since Brazil’s recent presidential election a new bilateral trade deal between the US and Brazil is now in the pipeline. US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro spoke on the phone on 29 October, with President Trump soon after stating that he sees a US-Brazil free trade agreement “happening”. According to Graner, the organisation is concerned with statements made by President Trump about “a US willingness to engage in bilateral trade talks with Brazil”, claiming that “the country is, historically, a bad actor when it comes to following through on trade commitments”. Graner’s statement adds “in 2016 and 2017, USCA called on the US Department of Agriculture to halt the importation of Brazilian beef upon finding that the country was attempting to ship tainted beef to the US. A system of corruption was later exposed throughout the Brazilian production chain, as multiple meat inspectors were prosecuted for accepting bribes in exchange for allowing tainted meat through inspection checks”. The statement ends by stating that “we encourage the Administration to reach out to its industry partners and other stakeholders if and when the conversation turns to establishing a US-Brazil free trade agreement”.

Cuba: On 31 October the United Nations (UN) General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favour of condemning the US economic, commercial, and financial embargo on Cuba - a call it has made every year since 1992. A total of 189 UN member states voted in favour, with Israel and the US voting against the resolution, urging all states to “refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures” which among other things, in the case of the embargo, interfere with the freedom of trade and navigation. There were no abstentions. The Assembly called upon states “that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the steps necessary to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible”. While the vote on the resolution is unenforceable, a UN press release notes that it “shines a spotlight on the relative isolation of the US regarding the embargo, which was first imposed in 1960, when [Cuba’s] former leader Fidel Castro came to power, following the revolution”.

Ecuador: On 5 November Ecuador’s national communication agency announced that Ecuador received a congratulatory message from the US for the work it carried out to fight drug trafficking in the country. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno to compliment him on the Ecuadorean government’s commitment to the struggle against organised crime. Pompeo also recognised the work carried out by the country to ensure human rights and maintain international political and economic ties. Finally, Pompeo praised the actions taken by the Ecuadoran government to welcome the high number of migrants coming from Venezuela.

Mexico: On 7 November Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, gave an interview with local broadcaster Televisa in which he said that, despite the 6 November US mid-term elections which saw the US Democratic party gain control of the House of Representatives, Mexico would continue with the same “challenges in security, trade and migration” with regard to relations with the US. In the interview Videgaray said that the US election – which also saw the US Republican party increase its majority in the US Senate – reflected the “enormous polarisation” of US society and will result in a divided government where it will prove difficult to enact “big legislative changes on public policy”. The minister said that the new make-up of the US legislature will have little impact on Mexico’s new trade agreement with the US and Canada (USMCA) but the changes could make it more difficult for US President Donald Trump to enact his flagship electoral pledge of building a wall along the shared US-Mexico border. Videgaray said that a House of Representatives with a “Democratic majority is unlikely to…[divert] resources from other areas to finance this [wall] project”. Videgaray also suggested that Trump’s rhetoric against migrants is likely to persist “although perhaps at a lower intensity” given that “with the [new] composition of the [US] Congress, it is unlikely that there will be ambitious migration reforms in one sense or another”.

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