[CTC] Weaponizing Tariffs To Advance an Anti-Immigrant and Ill-Informed Agenda Does Not Make America Great

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://www.citizen.org/news/weaponizing-tariffs-to-advance-an-anti-immigrant-and-ill-informed-agenda-does-not-make-america-great/


February 2, 2025

Weaponizing Tariffs To Advance an Anti-Immigrant and Ill-Informed Agenda
Does Not Make America Great

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On February 1, President Trump signed executive orders
that will slap 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada (with 10%
tariffs in Canada’s energy exports), and 10% tariffs from China, ostensibly
to punish those governments for failing to stop undocumented immigration
and fentanyl shipments into the United States (‘stopping the flood of
illegal aliens and drugs” according to the White House fact sheet).
Politico has reported that Trump also revoked the “de minimis” loophole for
packages from China, Mexico, and Canada as part of that order. De minimis
allows for direct-to-consumer packages valued under $800 to avoid rigorous
inspections and enter tariff-free.

Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch Director Melinda St. Louis issued the
following statement:

“No matter the intractable problem, Trump’s go-to playbook is to bully our
neighbors through tariffs and to scapegoat immigrants. Instead of
addressing the actual causes or seeking real solutions to the complex
public health crisis surrounding fentanyl, Trump jumps to impose damaging
and self-defeating across-the-board tariffs and to spout more hateful
rhetoric that dehumanizes our immigrant neighbors.

“While tariffs can play a constructive role in protecting U.S. jobs and
enforcing labor and environmental standards when part of a strategic
industrial policy, Trump’s approach is neither strategic nor appropriate.
Using tariffs to bully countries to advance an anti-immigrant and
anti-humanitarian agenda will do nothing to support U.S. workers and will
make our immigrant neighbors less safe.

“Consumer advocates have long called for removing the de minimis loophole
for all commercial direct-to-consumer packages, as more than four million
potentially unsafe and illegal packages per day now enter the U.S. without
inspection. Most of those packages come from China, so removing this
loophole for imports from China may have a meaningful impact on reducing
the flow of fentanyl in the short term, but, as long as de minimus
treatment exists, commercial importers will likely shift shipping routes
from other countries not covered by this order.

“To the extent there is a connection between trade policy and immigration,
it is that decades of U.S. trade policy created with outsized corporate
influence led to agricultural dumping, worker exploitation, and
environmental degradation that has forced many people in Latin America to
migrate in search of a better life. Rather than demonizing immigrants or
blaming other countries, our leaders must overhaul our broken trade
policies to address these root causes of migration and protect the rights
of migrant workers.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20250202/fa2725d2/attachment.htm>