Mexico says Trump meeting unlikely to lead to big deals

A meeting between Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday at the G20 summit in Germany will last about 30 minutes and probably not lead to any major agreements, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The face-to-face talks will be the first between Pena Nieto and Trump as presidents. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray warned in a television interview not to expect too much.

Trump’s election and his early days in office sent U.S.-Mexico relations to a new low due to his threats to slap tariffs on Mexican-made goods and a plan to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants.

“It will be an important meeting but we have to put it in context and not have expectations that are unjustified,” Videgaray told the Televisa television network. “We don’t expect to resolve substantial differences.”

Trump and Pena Nieto will discuss renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) scheduled for August, as well as cooperation in combating drug cartels and development in Central America, Videgaray said.

One topic not on the agenda at the meeting in Hamburg is Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, Videgaray added.

In late January, a planned meeting between the presidents was canceled following a Twitter dispute over Trump’s pledge to make Mexico pay for a wall, a campaign promise popular among many of his supporters. Trump has since shied away from that demand.

Trump’s administration also moved toward talks to renegotiate NAFTA, toning down earlier threats to pull out of the pact with Mexico and Canada.

This month, the U.S. and Mexican governments resolved a long-standing dispute over the sugar trade, while agricultural ministers from the three NAFTA countries met and said there were “relatively few” differences over farm trade to resolve in talks.

Last August, during Trump’s presidential campaign, he accepted an invitation to visit Mexico in what became a public relations disaster for Pena Nieto, who was widely condemned for inviting a man who has united Mexican like few others in shared disdain.

One of Pena Nieto’s closest aides, Videgaray was viewed as instrumental in organizing that meeting, and he lost his job as finance minister as a result. Pena Nieto in January revived Videgaray’s career, appointing him as foreign minister.