According to NPR, the administration of President Donald Trump may impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico as early as this weekend.
Such actions can provoke retaliation and end up doing more harm than good to Texas.
Some business executives in the Houston area are worried about that. Daniel Allford, president of ARC Specialties, a robotics manufacturer based in Houston, is one of them.
Mexico and Canada are two of Allford’s most significant overseas markets, and he stated on Friday that almost every aspect of his firm depends on exports.
“As long as tariffs are used as a negotiating tool and not as a financial tool, I’m all in,” Allford stated. “But as soon as they’re actually implemented, it’s the citizens of both countries that actually suffer.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reports that Mexico is Texas’ biggest export destination, followed by Canada.
Allford stated that he hopes Trump’s tariff threat is merely a bluff, as he anticipates retaliation from those nations if it isn’t.
“You set a tariff, the other guys set a tariff, the only one that benefits are the governments,” Allford stated. “All of the citizens of both countries are punished.”
Allford cites the example of a tariff imposed by the United States on imported pickup trucks over 60 years ago in reaction to tariffs imposed on poultry by West Germany and France.
“To this day, pickup trucks are highly priced because of what was called thechicken tax,'” stated Allford. “And so, everyone that buys a truck pays a $5,000 penalty for this tariff.”
