John Cornyn Seeks to Use USMCA Review to Enforce Water Treaty with Mexico

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R) questioned former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R) during a Senate Finance Committee Hearing on how the United States can use the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) joint review process to strengthen Mexico's compliance with the 1944 Water Treaty.

The 1944 treaty governs water sharing between the United States and Mexico, including Rio Grande water deliveries critical to South Texas agriculture.

Sen. Cornyn noted that enforcement challenges have led to economic hardship and job losses in the Rio Grande Valley.

"In 1944, the United States and Mexico entered into a water treaty," said Cornyn. "The enforcement of that has been fraught with problems and resulted in tremendous hardship and loss of jobs in the Rio Grande Valley."

Cornyn added that recent developments have improved the situation for Texas farmers.

"Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Rollins, now I think we're in a better place than we were in terms of delivery of water to our South Texas farmers," said Cornyn.

Kevin Brady praised Cornyn's leadership on the water issue and said the USMCA review process presents a strategic opportunity to ensure Mexico fulfills its treaty obligations, emphasizing that the joint review mechanism built into USMCA can be used not only to enforce existing commitments but also to strengthen the agreement more broadly.

"This is an opportunity to work with the administration to make sure that their commitments are being kept, that this is being enforced across the board," said Brady. "It's an opportunity to improve it as well, working with Mexico and Canada in a whole range of areas and making sure the agreement itself is working for Texas workers and manufacturers, farmers, and it is."

He also pointed to economic security concerns, including transshipments and investment ties to China, suggesting the review process could address broader trade enforcement issues.

"It's an opportunity to go beyond that to improve the agreement, certainly for Texas, economic security, transshipments from China, investment in China, making sure that screening is done not just at the U.S. border, but our neighbors as well," said Brady.

Cornyn previously urged U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer to raise the water treaty dispute during the USMCA joint review, signaling a continued push to link trade enforcement mechanisms with water treaty compliance.