It is essentially impossible to find any Economics Knower who thinks Donald Trump’s tariff ideas are good. Nonetheless, he seems intent on forging ahead, announcing on Monday a plan to institute a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada, and a 10 percent version on goods from China. His counterpart south of the border, climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum, held a press conference on Tuesday to patiently explain why this is a bad idea.
“Any tariffs imposed by one side would likely prompt retaliatory tariffs,” she said, reading from a letter she planned to send to Trump later in the day. “What sense is there?”
What sense indeed. As Sheinbaum pointed out, the tariffs would hit Mexico’s most important manufacturing industry, cars, particularly hard — an industry rife with American companies sending those cars north to American consumers. General Motors and Ford are the top two car makers in Mexico for exports to the rest of North America; almost one quarter of all American cars are produced south of the border.
She also responded to Trump’s contention that the tariffs are necessary because of all the illegal immigration something something drugs fentanyl something else, god who knows really, pointing out that the drugs and violence are not exactly just a Mexican problem. “We do not produce weapons, we do not consume the synthetic drugs,” Sheinbaum said. “Unfortunately we have the people who are being killed by crime that is responding to the demand in your country.” The fentanyl crisis, she added, is “fundamentally a public health and consumption issue within your society.”
The only suggestion I have here is that more climate scientists should be in charge of countries.
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