Mexican companies halt exports to the US

MEXICO - The flow of Mexican goods exported to the United States has slowed as companies anxiously hold back stock and wait to see if U.S. President Donald Trump reverses his decision to slap 25% tariffs on Mexico this week.

According to Marcelo Vazquez, state representative of the National Association of Importers and Exporters of Mexico (ANIERM), on the first day of the across-the-board tariffs on Mexican products, exports to the neighboring country fell about 40% in Ciudad Juarez, a manufacturing powerhouse across from El Paso, Texas.

This represents some US$100 million in Mexican products held up pending shipment across the border, he added.

“The mobility of the products was stopped hoping that there could be a day, a day near… some agreement to clear the goods,” Vazquez told Reuters. “Simply here the goods are stranded waiting for the tariffs to be rearranged.”

Trump imposed tariffs this week not only on Mexico but also on Canada, along with new tariffs on Chinese goods, sparking trade wars that could send U.S. prices soaring and push the Mexican economy into recession.

The Republican's tariffs mark a turning point in U.S.-Mexico relations and in more than 30 years of economic integration between the two sides. The two nations are each other's largest trading partner in products ranging from avocados to the automotive sector.

In many ways, Ciudad Juarez embodies the decades-long economic integration between the United States and Mexico, as the local manufacturing sector is filled with factories producing everything from auto parts to medical devices specifically for export across the northern border.

But if the tariffs remain in place, the city's economy could be forced to pull away from its northern neighbor, according to Mario Cepeda, local leader of the Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (Coparmex).