Mexico to send Texas water amid treaty, tariff dispute

Mexico plans to make an “immediate” water delivery to farmers in Texas amid a dispute over a decades-old treaty that has earned a threat of further tariffs from President Trump. 

The U.S. and Mexico have been engaged in a spat over a 1944 treaty that requires Mexico to send millions of gallons of water to the U.S. from the Rio Grande River. In return, the U.S. sends water from the Colorado River. 

The agreement stipulates that both sides meet those marks every five years, and the current cycle ends in October. However, Mexico has fallen far short of the agreement. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Friday during a news conference that there will be “an immediate delivery of a certain number of millions of cubic meters that can be provided according to the water availability in the Rio Grande” for Texas farmers. 

“And we hope the rainy season brings us more water so we can deliver more to the U.S.,” she said. 

Mexico is required to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the U.S., and in return, the U.S. sends 1.5 million acre-feet. One acre-foot is roughly 325,000 gallons of water. 

But Mexico has only shipped only one-third of what it owes, according to data from the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The water disparity prompted Mr. Trump this week to accuse Mexico of violating the treaty, and he threatened on social media to “keep escalating consequences, including TARIFFS and, maybe even SANCTIONS, until Mexico honors the Treaty, and GIVES TEXAS THE WATER THEY ARE OWED!”

He added, “I will make sure Mexico doesn’t violate our Treaties, and doesn’t hurt our Texas Farmers. Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until Mexico complies with the 1944 Water Treaty.”