Trump's tariffs take aim at Mexico -- and hit American consumers
SAN DIEGO -- President Trump is at it again. He is exploiting an issue he can't figure out, oversimplifying a complicated world and casting foreigners as the cause of America's problems.
That's how Trump rolls. First, he seized on immigration. He claimed to back legal immigration even as he tried to cut it in half by tying it to education and skills. He also blamed external factors for illegal immigration while excusing U.S. employers who can't get their fill of illegal immigrants.
As Trump sees it, the United States is being invaded -- with the help of Mexico. Americans are victims who need not take responsibility for anything.
Darn, I was way off. I thought people had been coming north for decades because of vast economic disparities between the United States and Latin American countries, because immigrant families from Mexico to Honduras have known the way to U.S. cities for generations, because Americans are addicted to cheap and dependable illegal-immigrant labor, and because we parents are raising kids with a poor work ethic who won't go anywhere near the dirty and dangerous jobs that immigrants do without complaint.
It never occurred to me that it was all Mexico's doing. Ay caramba!
Now Trump has brought his deductive reasoning skills to the issue of trade. And since he was a Democrat most of his life, it's not surprising that the president embraces protectionism and uses tariffs as a club.
Having already targeted China with nothing to show for it, Trump has once again set his sights on his favorite piñata -- Mexico.
Over the objections of some of his own advisers and cabinet officials, the president is mixing together trade and immigration. It would be one thing if Trump were trying to remedy some alleged cheating by Mexico in a trade deal. But Trump's beef with Mexico has nothing to do with trade.
The president wants Mexico to do something that he has failed to do, and with more resources than Mexico has to work with. He expects Mexico to stop the flow of migrants into the United States, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
If Mexico doesn't solve this problem for us, Trump has threatened to impose a 5% tariff on all products imported from Mexico starting June 10. The penalty would, according to Trump, gradually increase until the problem is fixed. By October, it could be as high as 25%.
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