Mexico

Fuel theft in Mexico used to consist of a few villagers drilling holes in Pemex pipelines and carrying away just enough gasoline to fill their vehicles and maybe a couple extra gallons to sell on the side of the freeway.  But as The Columbian notes, illegally tapping into pipelines and stealing gas from Mexico's state-owned oil company has morphed into a very well organized criminal enterprise, run by well-armed regional cartels and supported by distribution on a commercial scale to factories and petrol stations.

Back in January, Trump took a very public victory lap when Ford decided to scrap plans to build a $1.6 billion manufacturing facility in Mexico and invest in its Michigan facilities instead (we discussed it here: Trump Takes Victory Lap After Ford Cancels $1.6 Billion Mexican Expansion Plan As "Vote Of Confidence" In President-Elect).

"@DanScavino: Ford to scrap Mexico plant, invest in Michigan due to Trump policies"https://t.co/137nUo03Gl

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Tuesday that he had reached “an agreement in principle” with his Mexican counterpart, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, on a new trade deal governing the trade of raw and refined sugar between the US and Mexico.

There’s only one problem: The US sugar industry has said it’s unable to support the agreement in its current form, according to Reuters.

Ross said that Mexico met nearly every request by the US sugar industry to fix problems with a 2014 sugar trade agreement.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

A “sugar bomb” will detonate on June 5 unless the US and Mexico can reach an agreement on sugar imports within the next week.

If the US takes action, Mexico has threatened to retaliate. Corn and high fructose corn syrup are likely targets.

Mexico is the key buyer of US corn syrup.

Sweet Deals

Whenever manufacturers or growers cannot compete, they moan about “dumping”.

In an apparent snub to the administration's trade policy plans, GE CEO Jeff Immelt - who sits on the Trump-appointed manufacturing council - said he "very supportive" of NAFTA adding that he was "optimistic about Mexico."

Just a day after we showed Mexico's Manufacturing industrial production surge 8.5% year-over-year - the greatest surge since August 2010...