Here are products Mexican tariffs would affect
President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on Mexico, the United States’ largest agricultural importer, will affect how much every-day products cost, including as fresh vegetables and fruits.
According to CNBC’s Make It, a 5% increase on tariffs will affect top imports from Mexico, nsuch as:
- Fresh vegetables, including asparagus, cauliflower, celery, kale and lettuce.
- Fresh fruit, including avocados, berries, dates, figs, kiwis, pineapples and tomatoes.
- Wine and beer.
- Snack foods.
- Processed fruit and vegetables.
Business Insider reports that the tariffs could have significant impact on the avocado trade, for example, with the U.S. importing 85% of its Hass avocados from Mexico last year.
According to a series of tweets posted on Trump’s Twitter account on May 30 and May 31, an upcoming 5% tariff on all Mexican goods will go into effect June 10, “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our country, stop.”
Trump also tweeted that the tariff on Mexican goods will gradually increase until “the illegal immigration problem is remedied, at which time tariffs will be removed.” According to the tweets, the tariffs are also designed to pressure Mexico to “take back their country from the drug lords and cartels.”
Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com, told CNBC that imposing tariffs to fix an immigration problem is akin to “fielding a baseball team for a football game. It doesn’t compute and is likely counter-productive.”
“While the federal income tax cut gave consumers and corporations additional ability to spend, billions of dollars in tariffs on Mexican imports does just the opposite and worse,” Hamrick added in a statement to CNBC.