President Trump has ordered White House officials to find a way to shut the U.S. border with Mexico while exempting commercial trade from the closure.
I don’t know if the President is serious–it could be a negotiating ploy designed to bring pressure on somebody, maybe Mexico?–but I do know that the price of an avocado spiked to $2 in one of my local markets today. News stories recently have said the United States would run out of avocados in a matter of days if the border with Mexico is closed. (On the other hand, another local market was selling avocados at 3 for $4. I guess that market didn’t get the memo on price gouging.)
Completely shutting down the U.S. border with Mexico, as Trump has threatened, could halt all U.S. automotive manufacturing within a week, impacting at least one million jobs, Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research, has told the Washington Post. Mexico is the U.S.’s second-largest trading partner. U.S. companies imported $314.3 billion in goods from Mexico in 2017, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. And U.S. companies exported $243.3 billion in goods.The top imports from Mexico are automobiles, auto parts and assemblies, electrical machinery, and medical instruments.
