Blackstone's Schwarzman played a pivotal -- and, until now, little-known -- role in securing a 2018 agreement between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau to preserve free trade among the U.S., Canada and Mexico, according to Jared Kushner.
Bloomberg News
Stephen Schwarzman, billionaire and chief executive officer of Blackstone Group Inc., gestures as he speaks during a session at the Lisbon Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019. The Lisbon Web Summit runs from 4-7 November. A representative for Blackstone declined to comment. In a 2019 book of his own, Schwarzman wrote that he “had the unusual opportunity to serve my country as we negotiated new trade agreements with Mexico and Canada.” He was awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico’s highest honor for foreigners, in 2018.
In another excerpt shared with Bloomberg, Kushner details how the USMCA representative of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, then Mexico’s president-elect, in August 2018 made one of the worst negotiating errors that Kushner had ever seen. Jesus Seade, who had been tapped by the Mexican leader known as AMLO, who had been elected the previous month but wouldn’t take office until December, interrupted with his own offer that was far more advantageous for the US -- and harmful for Mexico -- than the offer Kushner was just about to make.