The Pima County Democratic Party has denounced President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Mexican imports as a move that penalizes Arizona residents and businesses for the President’s failure to articulate an effective immigration policy.
“Penalizing U.S. consumers and businesses by imposing a tariff will do nothing to address the humanitarian crisis at our border,” said Democratic Party Chair Alison Jones. “Coming from someone who claims to be pro-business and for low taxes, this proposal of a blanket tariff just doesn’t make much sense. But then, not much about this administration does.”
Trump, who has shown no ability to understand the humanitarian crisis at the border, much less effectively address it, maintains that the crisis can be solved if Mexico does more to reduce the flow of unauthorized immigrants across the southern border. The president prefers to use his executive authority, particularly the imposition of tariffs, to try to force other nations to bend to his will. His strong-arm tactics have been particularly hard on American businesses and consumers who have to pay for the tariffs through higher costs and higher prices passed on to customers.
Arizona is particularly dependent on a strong trade relationship with Mexico, which is the Grand Canyon State’s largest export market, purchasing an average of $8.3 billion dollars in exports annually. Any disruption in the trade relationship with Mexico will directly penalize Arizona businesses and residents.
While the State’s congressional delegation is nearly unanimous in opposing the tariffs, Governor Doug Ducey supports the president.
“Ducey is not the Governor of Trumplandia, he’s the Governor of Arizona,” said Jones. “He needs to start acting like it.”
The Trump tariffs will start at five percent effective June 10th and could increase to 25 percent if Mexico fails to curb immigration to Trump’s satisfaction.