10/3/2018

FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/MEXICO/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday [10-3-18] that U.S. President Donald Trump informed him he won’t be coming to his Dec. 1 inauguration and will be sending Vice President Mike Pence instead. During a telephone conversation, Lopez Obrador talked to Trump about plans for development projects in Central America and Mexico aimed at reducing the need for people to emigrate north. Lopez Obrador said Trump ‘reacted positively’ to the discussion..Lopez Obrador said he proposed the U.S., Canada and Mexico join forces to generate jobs and economic development “so that Mexicans and Central Americans can find work where they were born, where their families, cultures and customs are … so that migration is a choice, not a necessity’…Lopez Obrador said he will send a delegation to the United States to present the development plans. While they discussed the new USMCA trade agreement with Trump, he said the development plans were ‘the most interesting part of the conversation.'”

The Associated Press, “Trump to Skip Inauguration of Mexico’s President,” The New York Times online, October 3, 2018