President Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and made plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying that he plans to do better and protect American jobs in the long run. Part of those changes could include a 20% tariff on all imported Mexican goods, which is something that hasn’t been seen in America in quite some time.
"This reverses half a century of trade policy in the United States; the last time anyone talked about that kind of blanket tariff was around the Great Depression, the last time I can remember," said Jonathan Andreas.
Jonathan Andreas, who is an associate professor of economics at Bluffton University says that it’s unclear how that tariff will affect business here in America, but the effect might be more obvious in Mexico and with imported goods.
"The threat of a 20% tariff has driven down the value of the peso, which means that Mexican goods are now cheaper than they were before, and so right now it's actually increased the incentive to import more goods from Mexico, because it's driven down the peso," Andreas said.
As of now, it’s also unclear how President Trump plans to restructure these new deals to create and keep jobs here in America, and how the trade changes will affect the average American.
"I don't actually see any case of it hurting the average American, it may not help the average American, unless we actually would tax some of the people that get most of the gains from it," Andreas said.
