The Border Trade Alliance on Wednesday urged the United States and Mexico to continue working cooperatively and prevent any tariffs from taking place as talks at the White House continue.
“As disappointed as the trade community is in the plan to hit our ally and largest trading partner with tariffs, we would urge the U.S. and Mexico to continue to meet in good faith and work with urgency to arrive at an agreement that will avoid the economic damage that will result if the president’s plan is ultimately implemented,” Border Trade Alliance Chair Paola Avila said. “Despite the president’s claim that companies will return to the U.S., new tariffs will only increase costs for U.S. manufacturers, cause higher prices for U.S. consumers, and will ultimately result in job losses and weaken overall economic competitiveness. They’re a recipe for self-imposed economic harm.”
The Border Trade Alliance, whose membership is comprised of public and private sector stakeholders involved in cross-border trade, strongly opposes any new tariffs due to their negative impact on the U.S. and Mexican economies and on the effort to adopt the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the successor agreement to the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Imposing tariffs on Mexican goods not only runs completely counter to the spirit of cooperation and shared prosperity that has defined the U.S.-Mexico relationship for over two decades, but it makes the congressional ratification of the USMCA needlessly more complex,” BTA President Ms. Britton Clarke said. “The U.S., Mexico, and Canada have all taken preliminary steps in their respective legislative bodies to begin the process of implementing USMCA. These tariffs make that task more difficult, injecting uncertainty into a process that we remain hopeful can be completed this summer. New tariffs should be taken off the table so we can return to the necessary work of making the USMCA a reality.”
For more information:
Border Trade Alliance
www.thebta.org