By Reid J. Epstein and David Luhnow
MEXICO CITY -- Donald Trump eased his rhetoric on signature
campaign promises regarding trade and immigration following an
hourlong meeting Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Peña
Nieto.
The Republican presidential nominee said he would aim to
"improve" the North American Free Trade Agreement, an accord he has
long called "a disaster." In a joint briefing after the meeting, he
also said he would aim to keep manufacturing "in our hemisphere,"
referring to North America.
On the campaign trail, he has promised to keep jobs in the U.S.,
punish American companies that move to Mexico and enact steep new
tariffs on imports.
Mr. Trump, who has promised to make Mexico pay for an extension
of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, said "we didn't discuss
payment of the wall," but called the barrier "a shared
objective."
Mr. Peña Nieto, however, said he told Mr. Trump in private that
Mexico wouldn't subsidize a border barrier. "At the beginning of my
conversation with Donald Trump I made clear that Mexico would not
pay for the wall," he wrote on Twitter later Wednesday.
Mr. Peña Nieto's spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, said Mr. Trump
didn't respond to the president's statement, so there was no
discussion. Trump spokesman Jason Miller released a statement that
didn't mention the wall payment dispute but said "it is
unsurprising that they hold two different views on this issue." Mr.
Miller didn't respond to requests for clarification.
Mr. Peña Nieto condemned several of Mr. Trump's campaign
proposals and his characterization of some illegal immigrants as
drug dealers and rapists. "Mexicans felt offended by what was said"
during the campaign, Mr. Peña Nieto said.
The Mexican president noted illegal immigration was at a 10-year
low, and said economic activity in the two nations benefit each
other. He called the Nafta trade pact a boon to the U.S. economy,
but said he would be willing to "modernize" it.
The hastily arranged visit comes as Mr. Trump trails Democratic
rival Hillary Clinton in polling in each of the 11 battleground
states that will decide the general election.
His weakness among Hispanic voters has damaged his standing in
Colorado, Nevada and Florida, and made Arizona competitive -- a
heavily Republican state where the Clinton campaign opened two
offices in August and invested more than $100,000 in field staffers
to register voters and boost Democratic turnout.
Mr. Trump will reap some political benefit merely by standing
next to a world leader, said David Axelrod, the senior strategist
for President Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. "So far, this
has worked for Trump," he wrote on Twitter. "His greatest problem
is that people can't see him as (president). Here he gets to try
out the role."
The visit was harshly criticized in Mexico as capitulation to a
U.S. candidate who had attacked the country repeatedly on the
campaign trail. The meeting was unlikely to help Mr. Peña Nieto
improve his approval ratings, which are the lowest of any Mexican
leader in two decades, analysts said.
"Peña Nieto had a golden opportunity to speak truth to power and
instead he showed weakness, handing the stage to Trump to reaffirm
in our faces that yes, there will be a wall," said Sergio Aguayo,
an academic at the Colegio de Mexico graduate school in Mexico
City.
Messrs. Trump and Peña Nieto described their meeting as polite
but blunt. Mr. Trump said it was "a great honor" to be invited to
Los Pinos, the official residence of the Mexican president, while
Mr. Peña Nieto said Mr. Trump demonstrated his willingness to work
with Mexico by visiting the country.
Mr. Trump, reading from notes, said he told Mr. Peña Nieto that
Nafta has benefited Mexico far more than it has the U.S. Mr. Peña
Nieto said his priority is "to protect Mexicans, wherever they
are."
Mr. Trump's revised approach to Nafta comes in stark opposition
to the trade policy he has articulated since launching his
campaign. During a "60 Minutes" interview last September, he called
the trilateral agreement -- Canada is the other signatory -- "a
disaster" that "shouldn't exist." Though he said Wednesday that
Nafta has benefited Mexico more than it has the U.S., he didn't
repeat calls to install tariffs of up to 40% on U.S. companies that
relocate to Mexico.
"I think a positive that came out of this was Trump was much
less hostile toward Nafta, and free trade in our hemisphere," said
Alonso Cervera, chief economist for Latin America at Credit
Suisse.
Mr. Trump's campaign announced the trip the night before it took
place, and came hours before Mr. Trump was due to deliver a policy
speech outlining his immigration policy.
Though restricting immigration has been a signature element of
his campaign, Mr. Trump in recent weeks has sought to walk back
proposals to create a "deportation force" to remove 11 million
illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children. He said on Fox
News last week he would only seek to remove illegal immigrants who
have committed crimes.
Mr. Trump's allies say the visit is a move to show leadership on
his key domestic policy issue. Republican vice presidential nominee
Mike Pence said on CNN the visit marked the "beginning of a
conversation" with Mexico, which would be followed by negotiations
once Mr. Trump is elected.
Mr. Trump launched his campaign with unflattering comments about
Mexican immigrants. In May, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge
Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana, couldn't fairly adjudicate
civil lawsuits over the defunct Trump University because of his
Mexican heritage.
Mr. Trump's approval numbers have suffered among Hispanic voters
in the wake of these remarks. While Mitt Romney won support from
27% of Hispanic voters in 2012, Mr. Trump is at near half that
level, according to recent polling.
Mr. Peña Nieto also invited Mrs. Clinton to Mexico City. The
former secretary of state last met the Mexican president in his
country in 2014 and her campaign is "in a regular dialogue with
Mexican government officials," a campaign aide said. Mrs. Clinton
would speak with Mr. Peña Nieto "at the appropriate time," the aide
said.
Before Mr. Trump arrived in Mexico Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton
characterized his trip as an empty gesture amid a long campaign of
insulting Hispanic voters. She said American diplomacy "certainly
takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and
insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and
then flying home again."
"That is not how it works," Mrs. Clinton added during a speech
to the American Legion in Cincinnati.
Since installing his third set of top campaign staff since May,
Mr. Trump has made direct appeals to Hispanic and black audiences,
suggesting that long-term policies favored by Democrats and Mrs.
Clinton are directly responsible for crime and unemployment in
urban black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
In Mexico City, where Trump piñatas have become a big seller in
the past year, the capital's municipal legislative assembly passed
a motion Wednesday declaring Mr. Trump "persona non grata."
Senators from both the left-wing and conservative opposition also
criticized the visit and said Mr. Trump wasn't welcome.
A few dozen protesters gathered at the country's independence
monument along a main boulevard in Mexico City to rail against Mr.
Trump.
"He's not welcome in Mexico because of the statements he made in
the past," said Erick Valdepeñas, a 26-year old lawyer.
Mr. Peña Nieto and his aides had debated in the past how to
respond to the real estate mogul, with many aides suggesting he
take an aggressive stand against him, according to a person
familiar with the meetings. But the president has said he shouldn't
take sides in a U.S. election and instead should appear above the
fray, that person said.
--Santiago Perez and Hanaa Tameez contributed to this
article.
Write to Reid J. Epstein at Reid.Epstein@wsj.com and David
Luhnow at david.luhnow@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 31, 2016 20:46 ET (00:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.