Mexico Agrees to Send More Water to Texas Amid Tariff Pressure

Mexico is falling short of its commitment to an 81-year-old water-sharing treaty.

La Boquilla Dam in Chihuahua, Mexico, during a standoff between protesters and police on Sept. 9, 2020. Christian Chavez/AP Photo

Mexico has agreed to immediate water deliveries to Texas farmers in an effort to resolve a growing dispute over a decades-old water-sharing treaty, which has strained relations with the United States and triggered threats of tariffs.

The Mexican and U.S. governments on Monday confirmed that Mexico will release part of its water reserves and increase the share of water flowing to the United States from six Rio Grande tributaries through the remainder of the current five-year cycle, which ends in October.

The 1944 Water Treaty, which governs water sharing between the two nations through a network of interconnected dams and reservoirs, requires Mexico to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the United States from the Rio Grande every five years. In return, the United States provides Mexico with 1.5 million acre-feet from the Colorado River.

Ideally, Mexico is expected to deliver an average of 350,000 acre-feet of water each year under the treaty. However, according to data from the International Boundary and Water Commission—an agency composed of officials from both governments that oversees enforcement of the agreement—Mexico delivered just over 400,000 acre-feet between October 2020 and October 2024, amounting to less than 30 percent of its required quota for the current five-year cycle.

“Mexico finally meeting the water needs of Texas farmers and ranchers under the 1944 Water Treaty is a major win for American agriculture,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Monday in a statement. “After weeks of negotiations with Mexican cabinet officials alongside the Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, we secured an agreement to give Texas producers the water they need to thrive.”

The agreement helped prevent the situation from spiraling into a full-blown trade conflict. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Mexico of “stealing” Texas farmers’ water and threatened additional tariffs if the water issue was not resolved.

“Mexico has been stealing the water from Texas farmers,” Trump wrote on April 10 on his Truth Social platform, vowing to “keep escalating consequences, including tariffs and, maybe even sanctions, until Mexico honors the Treaty, and gives Texas the water they are owed!”

Hours after Trump’s comments, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded on X, acknowledging that her country had fallen behind on its water deliveries. She attributed the shortfall to a three-year drought but said Mexico had proposed a comprehensive plan to U.S. diplomats aimed at satisfying both countries’ needs.

“To the extent of water availability, Mexico has been complying,” she wrote on X. “I am sure that, as in other matters, an agreement will be reached.”

On Monday, the U.S. State Department commended Sheinbaum “for her personal involvement” in the negotiations and acknowledged “water scarcity affecting communities on both sides of the border.” A statement from the Mexican foreign ministry on the agreement further noted that the United States had agreed not to seek a renegotiation of the 1944 treaty.

Agricultural groups in Texas, who have long complained about Mexico’s water debt, welcomed the deal. The Texas Farm Bureau, the largest organization representing farmers and ranchers across the state, called the short-term water relief a “crucial first step.”

“Texas farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley are grateful Mexico is finally being held accountable for its non-compliance,” said Russell Boening, Texas Farm Bureau’s president.

According to the organization, prolonged water shortages had already forced the closure of the state’s only sugar mill, as sugarcane growers could no longer irrigate their fields. Other water-hungry crops, including citrus and cotton, were also at serious risk.

“The immediate deliveries of water and the deliveries of water in the next six months will be critical for farmers and ranchers who have long suffered because of Mexico’s non-compliance,” Boening said.

Water shortages have also taken a heavy toll on farmers on the other side of the border, where tensions over treaty compliance had sparked unrest. In September 2020, near the end of the previous five-year cycle, more than 2,000 protesters in the border state of Chihuahua stormed the La Boquilla dam on the Conchos River in an attempt to stop water from being released to the United States. The confrontation turned deadly when two people were killed as Mexican military police reined in to retake the facility.