Tijuana (EFE) .- Business leaders in Tijuana regretted on Thursday the decision of President Donald Trump to apply 25% tariffs to all cars that are not manufactured in that country, although they waited for a “preferential treatment” to be achieved due to their deep economic relationship.
At a press conference, the president of the National Chamber of the Transformation Industry (Canacintra) in the city, Alejandro Jaramillo Osuna, considered the decision a “imposition” that will bring you would be implications in the automotive sector in Mexico.
Jaramillo was worried that “Mexico was not consulted or asked”, but pointed out the need to “have caution” since there are still several details in the negotiation that are about to be defined and that the government of Claudia Sheinbaum is already raising.
One of the options, he said, is that the tariff to the auto parts would not apply from April 3, as will be done with the cars, until May 3, which will allow to be reviewed and even be exempt.
Autopartes, key industry for Mexico
“This is very important because the export of auto parts is still much more important for the generation of jobs in Mexico, that is, more Mexicans work in the generation of auto parts than in the manufacture of complete vehicles,” he said.
In Mexico, eight out of 10 jobs in the automotive industry in Mexico is related to the manufacture of auto parts and not with the manufacture of the complete vehicle, according to the organization’s data.
In that sense, Jaramillo Osuna stressed that among the negotiations in progress is a “preferential treatment” for Mexico in that sector, since many of the auto parts cross the border several times during its production.
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“But we do not want to rush, or sin pessimists, but to understand the issue well and allow the conversations that the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Economy take their course,” he said.
He recognized, however, that the greatest alarm among the businessmen of the border is that in the Tariff War Mexico is disadvantaged with respect to another country.
“That is, if South Korea or Brazil had a minor tariff than Mexico, that would be the big problem for our country. If, otherwise, Mexico achieves differentiated treatment with a lower tariff to all others, it can be in the short beneficial term,” he said.
Tijuana, a few kilometers from cities such as San Diego (California), has been placed as a key place for the development of the automotive, aerospace, electronic and medical products industry.
Almost half of the employment in the industry of this city with two million inhabitants of northwest Mexico is directly linked to foreign trade and more than 85% of companies that export products to the northern neighbor are of US origin, according to official data.
With EFE information
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