Mexico June 5 levied tariffs on a variety of U.S. products such as pork meat, some types of cheese, apples, cranberries, whiskey, steel, and motorboats, among other items. The duties are currently set at 10 percent, escalating to 20 percent on July 5, in retaliation for tariffs to the United States.
The tariffs are designed to hurt supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump in politically sensitive states and in particular, Republican members of Congress who depend on those supporters’ votes for re-election and return to power.
This includes growers of agricultural commodities like apples, who have the eye of House Republican Conference leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA; bourbon whiskey, close to the heart of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY; cheese, in the heads of the constituency of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-WI; and pork, with red states Iowa and North Carolina as industry leaders.
The tariffs came as Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto released a decree in response to the United States’ 232 tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum. The decree said the United States’ decision to impose these duties contradicts the international community framework on tariffs and international trade and therefore subjects them to what are called “Chapter VIII: NAFTA Emergency Measures,” which allows for Mexico’s decree.
The decree suspends the preferential tariff treatment between the United States and Mexico, allowing the latter to implement. The decree also established that Mexico would modify the value of pre-existing tariffs, which also applied to a number of imports from the United States. The measure officially enters into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation on June 5.
Mexico’s decision follows similar retaliation in early April by China, which imposed additional 25 percent tariffs on U.S. pork, reducing live hog values by as much as $18 per animal on an annualized basis, according to a statement from the National Pork Producers Association.
In a statement, NPPC president Jim Heimerl, a pork producer from Johnstown, Ohio, said, “The toll on rural America from escalating trade disputes with critically important trade partners is mounting. Mexico is U.S. pork’s largest export market, representing nearly 25 percent of all U.S. pork shipments last year. A 20 percent tariff eliminates our ability to compete effectively in Mexico. This is devastating to my family and pork producing families across the United States.
“We appreciate the variety of interests and issues the Trump administration is balancing in its trade negotiations with Mexico, China and other countries. While producers are trying to be good soldiers, we’re taking on water fast. The president has said that he would not abandon farmers. We take him at his word.”
The U.S. pork sector sustains more than 500,000 jobs across rural America. More than 110,000 of these jobs are directly tied to exports of American pork, the NPPC statement said.
Larry Dreiling can be reached at 785-628-1117 or [email protected].
