In an industrial district in Texas and New Mexico, companies welcomed President Trump’s tariff exemptions for Mexico, but concern and confusion linger.
On. Off. Maybe?
The businesses that sit along the border between the United States and Mexico have gone through a full cycle of will-he-or-won’t-he when it comes to President Trump’s tariffs over the last six weeks.
For three chaotic days in early March, manufacturers, distributors and customs agents in a desert industrial park near El Paso bumbled their way through as goods entering the United States from Mexico were briefly hit with a 25 percent tariff. Manufacturers called logistics firms with questions that no one could answer. Warehouses across the border in Juárez, visible from the park, were stuffed with held-up inventory.
Mr. Trump backtracked on that tax for most shipments from Mexico, but imposed a 25 percent tariff on metals and cars. The businesses on the border breathed a sigh of relief when the administration left Mexico off the list of countries hit by “reciprocal” tariffs that were imposed — and then paused — on Wednesday. But it was a reprieve only from the immediate turmoil, not an end to the border region’s unease.
“We dodged a big bullet with that one,” said Octavio Saavedra, the president of EP Logistics, a cross-border logistics firm with offices in El Paso and Juárez that handles shipments of electronics, including servers for data centers, and a variety of other imports. “But there’s still a very huge concern.”
One worry is the 25 percent tariff on foreign steel and aluminum that took effect last month. One of EP Logistics’ customers, a Mexican company that makes steel columns for buildings, sends its products to an American subsidiary before distributing them to sites across the United States. For the time being, the company is holding inventory in Mexico to avoid paying the tariff, Mr. Saavedra said.