Border Lines Blog

U.S. Customs and Border protection has chosen four construction companies to build the first prototypes of a concrete wall along the U.S. Mexico border.

Since the beginning of the administration of Donald Trump, Mexico and the United States have held plenty of meetings behind closed doors, most of them to discuss trade and immigration. But this time, both governments plan to get together and work on a strategy to fight organized crime.

Mexico will elect a new president next year. Although President Trump has temporarily delayed withdrawing the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, continued uncertainty over NAFTA and Trump's plans for a border wall are roiling Mexican politics.

Mexico is weighing economic retaliation against the U.S. to counter what Mexicans say is an anti-Mexico American administration. One idea under consideration is a boycott of U.S. corn. Mexico is the number one export market for U.S. corn. And U.S. corn producers are in Mexico City right now lobbying against the idea.

President Donald Trump said he’ll renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. That has a lot of businesses that do cross border trade concerned. That includes some U.S. energy executives, though energy was excluded from NAFTA.

U.S.-Mexico Intelligence cooperation has become closer on issues important to both countries such as illegal immigration, border security, drugs and human trafficking. But that critical intelligence relationship may be under examination in Mexico. The country is trying to fashion a response to a suite of economic threats issued by the new U.S. administration. And security is one serious chip to play.

In North Dakota, a ruling by the Army Corps of Engineers has temporarily halted construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. That decision has energized opposition to a pipeline under construction by the same company in west Texas. Mexico is paying for the Texas pipeline and has a lot at stake in this and other U.S. pipelines.

Mexico will likely slow the pace of cooperation with the U.S. on immigration and drugs should the incoming Trump administration substantially expand the current border wall.

Mexico is considering its options should President-elect Trump make good on his threat to withdraw from the the North American Free Trade Agreement. President Enrique Peña Nieto said Mexico is willing to "modernize" NAFTA, not renegotiate from scratch.

Donald Trump’s victory and the impending Republican majority in Congress means the Obama administration’s initiative to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Clean Power Plan, is almost certainly DOA.