Are the campaign promised tariff simply a threat? A club to bring in compromise offers from other nations?
The EU appears willing to compromise.
My concern is the threats [draconian tariffs] from the US president-elect to Mexico’s auto industry. A bridge too far? We do not wish to destroy Mexico’s potential as a cheap manufacturing base replacing China.
If tariffs are not implemented or implement at a much lower level the inflation risk is mitigated methinks.
China returns fire. We see your tariffs and raise mineral curbs.
I saw a piece on the wire yesterday, speculating that the US and Canada may agree to drop Mexico from the USMCA, if Mexico does not raise tariff barriers on Chinese products. Apparently, Chinese cars already have gained close to a 50% market share in Mexico.
The USMCA, as it is, expires July 1, 2026.
Ah, the piece from yesterday. The speculation about Mexico starts around the 1 minute mark.
That definitely falls into cutting one’s nose off to spite face.
Can the US afford to lose a next door cheap manufacturing location?
…then there will be some really mad political supporters that voted for such.
The same dilemma will be faced if we don’t have mass deportations.
A rather significant percentage of primary voters want both and it will be hard for some congress critters to not fight for such (their jobs will depend on it).
Yea and if we don’t get a wall to keep them out after we deport them then everyone is going to be just a little more, what’s the word that you use when your are more than mad?, Oh Yea pssd. I don’t want anyone coming over that wall unless they are on a jet heading south for a margarita.
Bringing enough drugs to make a REAL haul. Govt buyers, after all…
How “cheap” are imports, with a protectionist tariff imposed?
Remember the “big sucking sound” predicted to be created by NAFTA? While China is the primary target of the tariffs, plenty of other people have seen their decent paying factory jobs head south. We old phartz remember having Zenith TVs and Schwinn bikes that were built in Chicago. All gone now. Remember the VW car plant in Westmorland, PA? After VW pulled out, Sony built TVs in there, until the early 2000s. All gone now.
Of course, the downside of blocking Mexican products would be there would no longer being factories recruiting workers there, so the people seeking work would head north.
If they worked the tariff smart, rather than using a hammer, tariff on Mexican product would be just enough to level the cost with US built. That way, the existing investments made in Mexico would not be stranded, but there would be no incentive to move more production from the US to Mexico. Would US consumers see a price increase on the Mexican product? As the President of the UAW noted, during the strike last year, even though production costs are far cheaper in Mexico, the automakers charge us just as much for those cars as they charge for cars made in the US.
Steve…trying to make lemonade
Ask Ford and GM AND Tesla about their Mexican car plants. Or would that be ask Ford and GM and Tesla about their executives being less intelligent than plants? Then ask the REAL executives (i.e., the people actually running the companies) what they will do to reduce the selling prices of the vehicles their businesses will be assembling in Mexico due to the US Tariffs. Can’t legally treat Chinese assembly plants in Mexico differently than non-Chinese assembly plants also operating in Mexico as both are targeting both the US AND non-US auto market(s).
Have already lined up FIVE bridges for sale in Brooklyn. Sold “AS-IS, WHERE-IS”, US $ cash only.
Of course, the vast majority of the drugs go through ports of entry, not places one would build a wall.
Uh, ports of entry are deliberate holes in the wall–to allow stuff through. Otherwise, no imports OR exports (real walls block transit in both directions).
Sure you can. Apply tariffs according to the country of origin of the parts. A Ram 1500, built in Sterling Heights, MI, contains 55% US/Canadian parts. If Ram 1500 production is moved to Mexico, as several people have been talking about lately, then the 55% of the parts sourced in the US and Canada, return to the US without tariff, but the parts sourced in Mexico and the value added from final assembly, are assessed the equalizing tariff.
My Mexican built VW, contains 11% US/Canadian parts, so those parts would return to the US without tariff. The 40% of the parts sourced in Mexico, plus final assembly, would be tariffed at the Mexican equalization rate. The other parts, like the Japanese transmission, would be tariffed at the rate assigned to Japan.
A Mexican BYD EV would be tariffed at the Mexican equalization rate, for final assembly. Every one of the Chinese sourced parts would be tariffed at the protectionist/punitive Chinese rate. But that doesn’t matter, because of the flat ban on Chinese “connected car” systems.
Steve
Except the tunnels under the walls in Arizona and California.
Some of them they catch and others?
I believe that it is including the tunnels.
“Made in Mexico” parts, if tariffed when imported into the US, then Mexico tariffs “Made in US” items. US loses large export market. Meanwhile, Mexican manufacturers can undercut US prices on goods sold by US mfrs in all export markets. Remember Ohio? Or not?
There’s not even a small chance of mass deportations. I’ll be surprised if they even deport actual criminals.
Mexico exports to the US $452.29 billion. Mexican GDP $2.017T
US exports to Mexico $324.3 billion. US GDP $27.36T
Who is hurt worse in a US/Mexican trade war?
Plan Steve tries to be fair. I don’t want to crush the Mexican economy. I don’t want the “JCs” who have invested in Mexico over the last 30 years to need to write off their Mexican investments, due to being cut off from their market. I just want to stem the continuing flow of “jobs” from the US to Mexico, by removing the incentive to make the move.
Steve
Heh, I completely agree but there are millions of people that are expecting it to happen.
Of course, “mass” is likely to have a different definition in the very near future.
Deport criminals with 30 or more felonies…