“These tariffs are a tax on Arizona families and businesses that threaten to derail our progress,” said Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, who shares a border with Sonora and together they make up the so-called megaregion.
A few hours before Donald Trump ordered the imposition of tariffs of up to 25% for Mexico, Canada and China, Hobbs explained that the new taxes threaten to increase the prices of food and gasoline in that state.
She also stressed that the tariff measures would increase the cost of housing, in addition to representing a threat to priority or critical industries for Arizona, including semiconductor manufacturing, agriculture and clean energy.
“They are bad for families and they are bad for businesses. I hope the president reconsiders this hasty action that could have a devastating impact on our state’s economy,” the governor said in a statement.
How does Sonora influence?
On December 30, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, indicated that Sonora is an important part of the project to manufacture semiconductors in the country, and that this would even benefit the United States, especially Arizona.
With the American Chamber of Commerce, there will be important announcements in the state so that American firms can set up in various municipalities in the region
The head of the Federal Executive said that there are multiple investments in the pipeline for the neighbors of northern Sonora related to the production of chips, where it was proposed that one part be manufactured in Sonoran territory and the other in American land.
“What Mexico proposed is that in particular in Sonora it was a great possibility to have a link for the production of semiconductors,” said the federal president.
Another aspect that is part of the Sonora-Arizona relationship is the agricultural sector, since 95% of the crops produced in the Yaqui Valley, in the south of the state, are exported to the United States, which would represent a significant impact for Sonoran farmers.
For Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA), fresh produce is the industry that generates the most jobs in the border community and generates a positive impact for Arizona of almost a billion dollars, so there is concern that tariffs will affect the North American supply chain.
Economic value
In this regard, the Arizona-Mexico Commission agreed that tariffs will have severe consequences such as the interruption of supply chains and increased costs, both for companies and consumers.
He detailed that Mexico is Arizona’s number one trading partner with eight billion dollars in goods exported from Arizona to Mexico in 2023 and 11.8 billion dollars in goods imported from Mexico to Arizona in the same period.
“Mexico represents 33.2% of Arizona’s imports and these tariffs threaten key industries, from agriculture to manufacturing, and put economic progress at risk,” said the Arizona-Mexico Commission, created 66 years ago by the then governors of Arizona and Sonora, Paul J. Fannin and Álvaro Obregón Tapia, respectively.
Source: oem