Mexico’s Response to Tariffs Won’t Make Trump Happy
Mexico can’t end the migrant flow by itself. But it can—and likely will—raise tariffs that target swing states.
Slowing the trucks won’t stop the migrants.
Photographer: Ariana Drehsler/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump overruled his advisers last week to announce tariffs on Mexico for not stopping migrants at the border. Facing the continuing fallout from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the prospect of 2020 elections, Trump seems to be betting again that hyping the border and demonizing trade and Mexico will rally his political base.
His latest tariff gambit abuses the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, undermines free trade agreements and taxes American consumers. But that isn’t why his threats won’t work. It is because President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico can’t staunch the flow of people from his neighbors to the south.