By Nacha Cattan and Eric Martin / Bloomberg

Mexico’s top trade negotiator doubled down on threats to break off talks to rework Nafta, saying his country will walk away if the U.S. insists on slapping duties or quotas on any products from south of the border.

“The moment that they say, ‘We’re going to put a 20 percent tariff on cars, I

get up from the table,” Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said in an interview. “Bye-bye.”

This doesn’t mean, Guajardo emphasized, that Mexico would be looking to scrap Nafta. But by saying it refuses to even discuss the kind of tariffs President Donald Trump has long trumpeted, the country is ratcheting up the pressure on U.S. negotiators and effectively daring them to pull out of the 23-year-old pact.

Trump has lambasted the accord — which also includes Canada — as unfair and responsible for a “massive” imbalance favoring Mexico. It last year shipped $294 billion worth of goods north while the U.S. sent $231 billion south.

Mexican officials have said they expect official talks to start in June.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-27/mexico-warns-u-s-it-ll-cut-off-nafta-talks-if-tariffs-proposed

VOA – Scientists have found living organisms trapped in crystals that could be 50,000 years old. The organisms were found in a hot, but beautiful cave system in Naica, Mexico. If the findings are confirmed, they will show how microbes can survive in extreme conditions.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/mexico-cave-super-life/3738458.html

By Margot Sanger-Katz

In the first year of a big soda tax in Mexico, sales of sugary drinks fell. In the second year, they fell further, according to new research.

The finding represents the best evidence to date of how sizable taxes on sugary drinks, increasingly favored by large American cities, may influence consumer behavior. The results could have consequences for public health.

Mexico’s soda tax took effect in 2014, and applied to all beverages that included added sugar, including carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks and sweetened iced teas. The effort was pushed by public health advocates who argued that liquid sugar was contributing to the country’s high burden of obesity and diabetes.

Studies on the first year of the tax found that sugary beverage consumption fell substantially, with the biggest decreases among low-income Mexicans — the group at highest risk of obesity-related diseases. But industry analysts and anti-tax advocates had argued that the one-year results could just be a blip that would reverse as companies retooled their products, or as consumers adjusted to higher prices for their favorite drinks.

The new study, published online Wednesday in Health Affairs, shows that the results of such a tax may be far more long-lasting. The research, based on shopping data from a large sample of urban Mexican households, showed that the first year’s consumption declines continued during the second year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/upshot/soda-sales-fall-further-in-mexicos-second-year-of-taxing-them.html?_r=0

UPI – While Mexicans share a deep dislike of U.S. President Donald Trump, they are not fond of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto either. His 17 percent approval ratings are the lowest recorded for a Mexican president.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Voices/2017/02/23/Mexico-unified-against-Trump-but-divided-on-its-own-president/4611487854563/

JTA – Three Israeli single fathers whose babies were born in Mexico to surrogate mothers cannot fly their children to the Jewish state because local authorities are refusing to issue birth certificates.

http://www.jta.org/2017/02/23/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/three-israeli-single-dads-unable-to-fly-their-mexico-born-babies-home