A Texas congressman laid out the often lonely task of defending Donald Trump’s tariff plan to Americans on Sunday as he admitted to CNN that the measures would hurt his district but he supported them anyway.
Tony Gonzales was on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday when he gave the matter-of-fact assessment. His state and district battled powerful flooding over the Fourth of July weekend that left more than 100 dead and dozens missing at a girls’ summer camp and an RV/mobile home park.
Gonzales was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash whether the announced “reciprocal” tariff rate for Mexico of 30 percent was too high.
The congressman was also queried whether his district would be “hurt” by the tariffs.
“It may,” responded Gonzales. “But I do support the president in this.”
President Trump began informing countries of effective tariff rates to go into effect August 1 as he seeks to apply further pressure to countries open to trade agreements.
“I think for too long, Mexico has gotten away with — been allowed to do anything,” the congressman continued. He repeated that claim a few seconds later — that Mexico was able to “do what ever it wants”, but did not give any specific examples of what he meant or how the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship had been impacted.
He added that he was focused on the upcoming deadline, which appears to translate as hoping that Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum could reach a deal with the White House before that point.
The spotlight on Trump’s tariffs largely evaporated over the summer as it became clear that Wall Street had mostly absorbed the effects of Trump’s tariffs on the market so far. Whether that will continue in August, once the remainder of Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” go into effect, remains to be seen.
Trump was previously talked into extending a pause for those measures for 90 days, leading to the negotiations this month, but also revealing continued market fears about the reciprocal measures.
Mexico’s government said this week that it was open to an agreement.
“We believe, based on what our colleagues discussed yesterday, that we will reach an agreement with the United States government and that, of course, we will achieve better conditions,” Sheinbaum said, according to Bloomberg and the Associated Press.
But she also reportedly warned, in remarks made in the border state of Sonora, that Mexico would not bow to demands for unilateral concessions.
Her country signed a trade deal meant to replace NAFTA during Trump’s first term, the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact known as USMCA.
