Mexican Businesses, Regional Leaders Respond to New US Tariffs

Latin Americans speak up about the new levies assigned to Mexico’s U.S. bound exports and the possibility of more to come.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office as he announces reciprocal tariffs, on Feb. 13, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Mexicans are responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imports, which are set to come into force on April 2.

Trump announced a delay in the levies—originally scheduled to take effect on March 4—on Truth Social after a Thursday call with Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Sheinbaum previously declared Mexico would retaliate against the new U.S. tariffs during a March 4 press conference.

“The unilateral decision made by the United States affects national and foreign companies that operate in our country and affects our people. For this reason, we have decided to respond with both tariff and non-tariff measures,” Sheinbaum stated.

The Mexican head of state said that she'd announce further details on March 9 and that “nobody wins” with the U.S. tariffs.

The United States imported more than $505 billion in goods from Mexico in 2024. This represents a 6.4 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Residents, public figures, and other politicians in Mexico have decried Trump’s new tariffs and the looming possibility of a trade war with the United States.

Mexican business mogul Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego said he is against the potential use of retaliation tariffs against the United States.

“The worst stupidity would be to respond with a tariff war. The proposal to impose tariffs on imports from the United States, as a response to the actions of the U.S. government, will generate negative effects mainly for the Mexican economy,” Pliego said in a post on the social media platform X.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada—a historically hard critic of Trump’s leadership—took to social media to criticize the new levies. He said the measures will “harm workers and businessmen on both sides of the border.”

“Mexico will not be intimidated by your tantrums. Trade is for building, not dividing,” Quesada stated.

Some Mexican politicians have placed the blame on the country’s leadership for not taking a firmer stance against drug trafficking and organized crime.

Senator Lilly Téllez criticized Sheinbaum for delaying action and alleged that Trump’s tariffs are the consequence of the Mexican government’s “pact with drug traffickers.”

“If she really cared about Mexico, she would break up with the cartels instead of making a circus out of them,” Téllez stated in a social media post in Spanish.

(Left) Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question at the National Palace in Mexico City on Nov. 6, 2024; (Right) President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Jan. 29, 2025. Alfredo Estrella, Pedro Ugarte/AFP via Getty Images

Fellow senator Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz described Trump’s tariffs on Mexican products as “bad news” for both countries in a post on her X account.

Ruiz also criticized Sheinbaum’s decision to delay action to protect Mexican businesses. She said Mexico needs to diversify its exports and strengthen commercial relationships with other nations.

Ruiz also said her country needs to offer financial support and guidance for small and medium-sized exporting companies.

Carlos Hernandez, an auto shop owner in the state of Oaxaca, told The Epoch Times that he doesn’t expect businesses in his home state to feel the impact of U.S. tariffs as quickly as northern states like Sonora, where one of his brothers works in the copper industry.

However, he believes it’s only a matter of time before everyone is affected in some way.

“Both sides will feel the [economic] effect of U.S. tariffs, but Mexico will suffer the worst,” Hernandez said.

In January, economic sciences professor Daniel Velázquez Orihuela of the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo wrote in a newsletter in Spanish that the impact of U.S. levies on Mexican industries would “seriously affect” the economy.

An estimated 83 percent of Mexico’s exports are bound for the United States, he said, so the new import duties would reduce profit margins and product competitiveness.

Orihuela added that the U.S. tariffs would result in a drop in Mexican exports and local jobs associated with those industries.

Hernandez expects that prices for some things will go up if Mexico’s president “hits back” with taxes on U.S. items. “It will work its way down the ladder to everyone at some point. We could be in real trouble,” he said.

Other Mexico residents worry the potential economic downturn triggered by Trump’s tariffs could give drug cartels a chance to tighten their grip on the nation.

“The last thing this country needs is a trade war with the United States,” Renata Aguilar, a former boutique hotel owner who is retired and living near Mexico City, told The Epoch Times.

Aguilar said the average Mexican family can’t financially survive a significant economic downturn.

Impoverished and rural areas lacking job opportunities are how cartels like Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation have historically gained traction.

A truck burns on a street in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, on Jan. 5, 2023, after security forces captured Ovidio Guzmán, a son of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, which set off gunfights and roadblocks. Martin Urista/AP Photo

“We’ve already seen how bad it has been with the cartels, how many people end up working for them. How much worse will it be if more jobs go away?” Aguilar asked.

In a 2024 study, the Oxford Department of International Development noted a link between poverty, job instability, and drug cartel recruitment in Mexico.

“Cartels offer an attractive alternative for many young Mexican men who face little chance of attaining social mobility and earning a decent salary,” the study noted.

Since his January inauguration, Trump notified Canada and Mexico that tariffs were coming because of the “extraordinary threat” unchecked drug trafficking from their countries has posed to U.S. national security.

In a March 3 statement, the White House reported that 97 percent of illegal fentanyl seizures occur at the U.S.–Mexico border.

The official fact sheet also stated the Mexican government has provided a “haven” for the cartels involved with manufacturing and transporting narcotics to the United States.

“The people elected me to do the job, and I’m doing it,” Trump said during a congressional session the following day.

On Feb. 3, Trump announced on Truth Social that Sheinbaum offered to send 10,000 Mexican National Guard troops to help boost security at the U.S. southern border.

Other Leaders Weigh In

Other countries in Latin America have been preparing countermoves in the event Trump decides to implement more tariffs in the region.

In a February interview with Rádio Clube do Pará, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he would retaliate against Trump’s proposed tax on steel imports.

“I heard that he is going to tax Brazilian steel. If he does, Brazil will react commercially, denounce the measure to the World Trade Organization ... or impose tariffs on the American products we import,” Brazil’s president—commonly known as Lula—said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during the opening of the National Construction Industry meeting in Brasilia, Brazil, on Nov. 26, 2024. Adriano Machado/Reuters

Lula added if Trump takes any action to impose tariffs on Brazil, his administration will respond in kind. “There is no doubt, there will be reciprocity.”

On Feb. 13, the White House declared the United States as one of the most “open economies in the world,” but suffers closed markets for many of its exports.

“This lack of reciprocity is unfair and contributes to our large and persistent annual trade deficit,” the release stated.

As an example, U.S. ethanol exports to Brazil are subjected to an 18 percent tariff versus the 2.5 percent America charges on the same commodity. More than $200 million worth of ethanol imports from Brazil, but only $52 million in U.S. ethanol exports to the same country in 2024.

The United States is Brazil’s biggest steel importer, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. America’s steel industry relies heavily on Brazil for imported slabs and pig iron.

Meanwhile, Argentinian President Javier Milei praised Trump’s reciprocal tariff plans in Latin America.

During a February visit to Washington, Milei reportedly said he'd support America’s move to impose reciprocal tariffs and apply the same fees to imports that other countries place on U.S. goods.

Milei said he wanted to ensure Argentina would be “the first country in the world to join this reciprocity agreement that the Trump administration is asking for in trade matters.”