As Donald Trump’s inauguration gets nearer and nearer, his proposed policies are becoming closer to reality. One move, the proposed tariff on goods from Mexico, has especially gained media attention. Mexico’s economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo said last week that Mexico is prepared to retaliate should the tariff see the light of day.
“It would be a problem for the entire world,” Guajardo said to CNN. He added that the tariff “would have a wave of impacts that can take us into a global recession.”
During Trump’s press conference last week (his first since winning the election), he said that there would be “a major border tax” on companies that are shifting their business to other countries, like Mexico. As Trump put it, they “are leaving and getting away with murder.”
Another major talking point regarding trade has been the Trump camp’s promise to renegotiate NAFTA right away.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he was open to “modernizing” the agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
While Guajardo didn’t specify what Mexico would do should the tariff become a problem, he made it very clear that the country wouldn’t be idle.
“There are ways—it’s very clear how—to take a fiscal action that clearly neutralizes it,” he said, according to CNN.
