As US President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” broke in the morning on the Mexican-US border, Raul Hernandez asked his semi-trailer to take Toyota pick-up trucks to California, worried about how the tariffs would affect them.
If Trump proceeds with his plan to implement imported import duties and manufacturers transfer their plants to the United States, many workers in Mexico will suffer damage, he said.
“A lot of people are going to lose their jobs here,” 37 -year -old told AFP, if he does, “37 -year -old told AFP, waiting in a long queue to cross in San Diego.
Hernandez said that the factory -run factory is important for the Mexican border cities such as Tijuana and the forces of workers, which keep them walking.
He said, “They provide jobs. They support families. If the plants actually stop due to tariffs, it will hurt Mexico and Mexican people,” he said.
Behind him in the queue, Omar Zepeda was also transporting Tacoma pick-up trucks from a nearby Toyota plant.
Like Hernandez, he was nervous by the effect of tariff.
“I think there will be very little work for us because the products will become more expensive and less people will buy them.”
“One reason why plants are here. Maybe people working here are more efficient and labor is cheaper.”
– ‘Hard time’ –
The Northern Industrial Borderland of Mexico is home to thousands of factories for tax break and free trade agreements dating for several decades.
“Most families in Tijuana work in factories and transport,” Zepeda said.
“This is very uncertain. We don’t know what is going to happen,” he said. “I think the difficult time is coming, but let’s wait and see.”
Taking a holiday from his work at the Toyota plant on the outskirts of Tijuana, Epolos Vela said the tariff would give a heavy blow across the city.
“This is worrying because it would mean that many people will be left without jobs,” he said.
– ‘Sad for Tijuana’ –
In Mexican border cities such as Tijuana, where poverty and crime are a part of everyday life, it is not just factory and carrying workers, who rely on hundreds of billions of dollars of cross-bound trade in a year.
Sell ​​bureotos to hungry truck drivers at its roadside stall next to the border fence built to keep out the unspecified migrants, Charito Moreno said that tariffs will harm all tijuana if the plant fire worker.
“Everyone depends on the businesses. The week that the tariffs were introduced, many people took time, and that’s why the economy is slowing down,” said the 44 -year -old.
If the companies called Trump to move from Mexico to the United States, it would be tragic to Tijuana, as many workers would be left without jobs, “Moreno urged the two countries to come on an agreement.
Jumping out of its truck carrying parts to the swimming pool in the United States, Antonio Waldez said the truck drivers already had more paperwork.
He said, “It takes an hour. Now it takes an hour. Now it takes all day to calculate and pay taxes,” he said before jumping back into his truck to go to the border.
Mexican President Claudia Shinbam said on Wednesday that she was working on a widespread program of economic reforms in response to tariffs.
“It is in our interest to strengthen the Mexican economy,” he said.
The truck Elejandro Aspinoza said Mexico should kill the United States where it hurts.
“If they impose tariffs on us, we will not send them to avocados and see what they do,” he said with a chakli.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
