U.S. and Mexican officials are still trying to find a solution to avoid President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs. Trump says a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico is in retaliation for migrants crossing the border into the U.S.
Joe Cramer is the executive director of the Michigan Bean Commission. He says after the U.S., Mexico is the bean industry’s biggest trading partner.
The Michgian Bean Commission's website says Michigan is known throughout the world as a top producer of dry edible beans. "We're a little nervous that we've damaged that relationship by not being the preferred supplier that we've worked so hard to become," Cramer said on Stateside Wednesday. "We're very anxious to get this behind us and try to patch the wounds a little bit and move on."
The tariff is set to kick in Monday, June 10. It could be cranked up as high as 25% by October.
"Ramping up tariffs through the growing seasons isn't going to help any of those relationships by any means," Cramer said. "We think we understand the challenge, we being the driving growers in the state of Michigan, but at the same time we don't really want to carry the load on that either of fixing or solving those problem."
In a tweet, President Trump said the tariff will gradually increase until problem is remedied.
