Trump’s Mexican tariff threat
What happened
Defiant Senate Republicans warned President Trump not to follow through with his announced plan to slap escalating tariffs on all Mexican imports this week until Mexico stops Central American migrants from traveling to the U.S. border. After a closed-door Capitol Hill meeting, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said there wasn’t a “single yes” vote for Trump’s plan to impose the tariffs by declaring a national emergency at the border, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said most Republicans hope “these tariffs will not take effect.” Trump replied it’d be “foolish” for GOP senators to take legislative action to block his planned 5 percent tariff, effective June 10. The tariff would rise 5 percent each month until reaching 25 percent by Oct. 1. Trump didn’t specify the steps Mexico had to take to prevent the tariffs, leaving it to “our sole discretion and judgment” as to whether the country was doing enough. In the first three months of 2019, the U.S. imported $86.6 billion in car parts, televisions, beer, avocados, and other goods from Mexico—more than from any other country except for China.
Trump’s threat was reportedly instigated by senior adviser Stephen Miller, who has overseen some of the administration’s most hawkish immigration policies—and was opposed by both Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as potentially damaging to the U.S. economy. It comes as Customs and Border Protection statistics show that more than 144,000 migrants were taken into custody along the Mexican border in May, a 32 percent jump from April, and the highest monthly tally in 13 years. In response to the possible tariffs, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador dispatched negotiators to Washington, D.C., and said he expected “good results” from the talks.
What the editorials said
This “could become one of the worst errors an American leader has ever made,” said The San Diego Union-Tribune. A 5 percent tariff, economists estimated this week, could eliminate 400,000 U.S. jobs. A 25 percent tariff could mean millions lost. Here, in the San Diego–Tijuana region, cross-border trade is critical to employers and consumers on both sides. “Some goods cross the U.S.-Mexico border 14 times while being assembled.”