The publicly sold narrative is Canadian PM Justin Trudeau holding out on a celebratory USMCA visit to Washington DC over worries about U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs.  However, the background issue is Justin maintaining his “resistance” bona-fides during a U.S. election year.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is coming, but Justin has all those pesky political optics to worry about.  Or something….

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday he was still unsure whether he would go to Washington D.C. next week to celebrate a new North American trade treaty, citing concern about possible U.S. tariffs on aluminum.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump next week, has said he would like Trudeau to attend.

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Earlier today President Trump commemorated the 200th mile of border wall being built along the U.S-Mexico border. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – Q Can I ask question on the wall: How’s it looking?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s great. It’s great. It’s going to be — it’s really foolproof. It’s solid steel. It’s rebar and concrete inside the steel. So we have a very heavy concrete inside the steel. And inside the concrete, we have rebar. So you have everything you could have. It’s what they wanted, and that’s what we did.

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Earlier today President Trump attended a border security briefing in Arizona during an event to thank border enforcement and review the border wall.  [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. Great to be here. Beautiful runway. A little warmer than I’m used to, but that’s okay, Doug, right? We have a — I was just given a beautiful picture of the wall. That’s before and after. And that’s quite a difference: one area you walk over, you drive over, you do whatever you want, and other one you say, “Well, I guess we don’t get in.” Here’s another one — just given. That’s great. That’s a different section. Pretty amazing.

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U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is testifying tomorrow at 10:00am to the House Ways and Means committee; later in the afternoon Ambassador Lighthizer will testify before the Senate Finance Committee.

The New York Times has received an advance copy of USTR Lighthizer’s opening statement, and the liberal publication is apoplectic the Trump administration plans to outline an even more aggressive stance toward the World Trade Organization (WTO).

According to the pearl-clutching Wall St. class, Lighthizer is going to inform congress of Trump/USTR plans to demand tariff reciprocity; and Lighthizer will indeed raise tariffs against any nation that continues to attempt one-sided benefit. [EU will go bananas]

One method to approach tariff inequality would be for the U.S. to lower the import value threshold for non-tariff exemptions. Currently the U.S. does not apply import duties to any product valued under $800. This is a great benefit to China, southeast Asia, and U.S. on-line retailers such as ebay and Amazon; however, the zero tariff threshold hurts U.S. manufacturers because China and other nations do not reciprocate.

It is anticipated that USTR Lighthizer will inform congress the U.S. will lower that import threshold to match the same value level applied by other nations. Obviously the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street multinationals will not like this approach.

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Shortfalls in the illicit drug trade could be very problematic for the DNC who receive funding through Mexican drug cartels.  Apparently, according to the cartels, the coronavirus is having an impact.  Will Speaker Pelosi look for bailout options?

Additionally the U.S. military operation to target illicit drugs is entering its fourth week creating even more havoc in the system.

NEW YORK (AP) — Coronavirus is dealing a gut punch to the illegal drug trade, paralyzing economies, closing borders and severing supply chains in China that traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make such profitable drugs as methamphetamine and fentanyl.

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Though the U.S. and Canada are not part of the “OPEC Plus” group, President Trump has  been leading negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia to broker a deal and stop their price war.  Today President Trump announces an agreement between the major petroleum exporting countries to curb oil production by approximately 10 million barrels per day:

Additionally, there was a loggerhead within the negotiations as Mexico did not want to cut their production by the requested amount of 400,000 barrels daily.  Mexico relies on oil as a large part of their economy. AMLO stated his economy could not withstand such a significant drop in state revenue.  Economic security is, after all, national security.

President Trump broke the OPEC+ stalemate by agreeing to decrease U.S. production by 300k/barrels allowing Mexico to drop a more manageable 100k/barrels.  Trump and AMLO reached an undisclosed agreement where Mexico will reimburse the U.S. later on.

I suspect the “reimbursement” will be more, well, strategically geopolitical than financial.  [*nudge-nudge*, *wink-wink*, *say-no-more/say-no-more*]  President Trump has an uncanny knack of collecting leverage for later, more strategic, purposes.  Just sayin’.

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Canada completes the North American cycle with their ratification of the USMCA to replace NAFTA. Mexico and the U.S. ratified the new trade agreement last year and January respectively.  The Canadian parliament did so yesterday.

CANADA – Canada on Friday formally approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), taking the last legislative step to implementation of the deal to replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The trade deal, ratified by the Mexican legislature last June and by Congress in January, was formally ratified by the Canadian Senate Friday, and shortly thereafter received royal assent, the Canadian governor general’s approval.

The deal was passed through the legislature before Parliament shut down for five weeks in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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The Supreme Court announced today the Trump administration may continue to enforce the “Remain in Mexico” policy requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico pending a review of their claims.
A lower court deemed the program illegal and ordered a suspension that was scheduled to take effect Thursday.  However the Supreme Court stay allows the Trump administration Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) to remain in force:

(White House) – Today’s order from the Supreme Court is a major victory for the Trump Administration. By allowing the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) to remain in effect, the Court has prevented dangerous chaos at the southern border, avoided a significant escalation in public health threats, and mitigated damage to foreign relations.

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Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks to Hispanic American business leaders and small business owners along with members of the Latino Coalition attending the Annual Latino Coalition Legislative Summit. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. And thank you, Hector. Please. Let’s have some fun, right? (Laughter.) But thank you very much for that beautiful introduction, Hector. And I appreciate it. It’s been a great friendship and it’s a terrific thing to honor all of these incredible people, the Latino Coalition. Latino Coalition. You’re having the best year you’ve ever had, I have to say that. Last year was your best and we’re beating it this year.
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It should not be a 5-4 split and majority decision, but that just goes to reflect how radical and structurally political the Supreme Court has become.  In an important ruling today the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that illegal aliens can be prosecuted by the states for stealing the identity of U.S. persons on employment eligibility paperwork.  [Direct pdf link]

Stunningly four justices (BREYER, GINSBURG, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN) dissented from the majority decision; and instead gave their minority opinion that federally mandated I-9 employment eligibility certifications should not be permitted for use as evidence in cases surrounding identity theft.
According to the dissenting opinion, if your identity or social security number was stolen by an illegal alien; and used to falsify employment eligibility documents; that illegal action is not itself criminal conduct because the documents are not permissible as evidence to show the alien falsified information. An absolutely bizarre position in a nation of laws.
The primary issue surrounds federal laws that state employment affidavits, like an I-9 eligibility declaration, cannot be used to prosecute illegal aliens, unlawfully residing in the U.S.  However, it is simultaneously unlawful under federal law to provide false information on those employment eligibility documents.
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