Washington Conference Speech Highlighted in Foreign Policy Newsletter
Washington Conference Speech Highlighted in Foreign Policy Newsletter
Catherine Osborn mentions U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's participation at the WCA Luncheon in her Latin America Brief.
What We’re Following
U.S. policy watch. On April 30, Time published a lengthy interview with former U.S. President Donald Trump. Then, on Tuesday, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan gave a speech about U.S. policy toward Latin America. Together, the two events offered clues as to what either outcome of this year’s U.S. presidential election might mean for the future of Washington’s policy toward the region.
Speaking with Time, Trump repeated his pledge to impose a 10 percent tariff on goods from all foreign countries, adding that he would introduce a 100 percent tariff on cars built at plants run by Chinese companies in Mexico. (Such moves would typically require congressional approval.) Trump also said he would be willing to use the U.S. military to conduct mass deportations of millions of people living illegally in the United States. Separately, Rolling Stone reported this week that Trump has privately endorsed plans to deploy covert military squads into Mexico to assassinate drug bosses.
Sullivan, for his part, addressed a Council of the Americas event in Washington on Tuesday, providing an overview of U.S. President Joe Biden’s policies toward the region that included a pledge to make the Americas the “most economically competitive region in the world.” (Trump’s policy advisors have also pushed a nearshoring agenda, but Biden has not pledged equivalent tariff hikes.)
To fight organized crime, Sullivan pledged law enforcement partnerships and efforts to crack down on gun trafficking; to address migration, he said Biden believes in “stronger and humane” border enforcement and an increase in legal migration pathways.
