Mexico’s president on Tuesday reacted to President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on goods produced in his country, warning that his plan would lead to inflation and hurt U.S. automakers such as General Motors and Ford.
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (Mexico’s president) began her morning press conference by reading aloud a letter she sent to Trump in which she questioned Trump’s pledge to impose a 25% tariff on goods produced in Mexico if his government doesn’t stop the flow of migrants or fentanyl to the U.S. border.
She suggested Trump probably doesn’t know that over the past year, his country has taken “a holistic approach” to stop the thousands of people crossing Mexico to reach the U.S. southern border, or that she said U.S. Border Patrol migrant encounters have dropped by more than 75% since last December as a result.
He warned of the economic risk to both countries and to U.S. companies that rely on their Mexico assembly plants to deliver low-cost goods to consumers.
“The answer to one tariff will be another, unless we put at risk the companies with whom we share — yes, the ones we share with,” he said, in what appears to be a veiled threat to respond to any tariffs from Trump with tariffs of his own.
“For example, Mexico’s major exporters include General Motors, Stellantis and Ford Motor Company, which came to Mexico 80 years ago. Why tax them in a way that puts them at risk? That’s not acceptable,” he said. “And that will cause inflation and job losses in the United States and Mexico.”
Mexico is currently the United States’ largest trading partner, surpassing China. Trade between the U.S. and Mexico is set to exceed $855 billion annually in 2022, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Trump campaigned on a promise to use tariffs to slow the flow of migration and illegal drugs to Mexico. He posted the first details of his plan on Monday on his social media site Truth Social.
“On January 20th, as one of my many first executive orders, I will sign all necessary documents to impose a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada and its ridiculous open borders,” Trump said.
