Nissan, the Japanese car giant, is considering leaving Mexico if US President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican imports. The Asian company has factories in the country that would be affected by the Republican tycoon’s taxes, as it exports around 320,000 vehicles from Mexico to the United States each year.
The company’s president and CEO, Japanese Makoto Uchida, has introduced the possibility of moving its Mexican production centers to another country this Thursday during a press conference: “We export a large volume to the United States, so if there are high tariffs, it will have serious implications on our business.”
Uchida added: “If high tariffs are imposed, we will have to be ready and perhaps we can move production of these models elsewhere. If that were the decision, we would think about how to make it a reality while monitoring the situation.” Nissan set up shop in Mexico in 1961. Since then, it has opened factories and offices in Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Manzanillo and Toluca. It currently employs more than 15,000 people in the country, according to the company itself.
Nissan thus becomes one of the first large companies to publicly warn of its exit from Mexico, one of the great fears of the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, in the face of threats from Trump. The American had been arguing since the election campaign about the possibility of applying taxes against Mexico, an idea that resonated with his electorate. Upon his arrival at the White House, he announced the imposition on Mexico and Canada, his two partners in the Free Trade Agreement.
On February 3, at the last minute, after a telephone conversation between Sheinbaum and Trump, the entry into force of the tariffs was postponed for a month. In exchange, among other concessions, Mexico had to deploy 10,000 more soldiers on the border shared with the United States, which the Republican considers too open to irregular migration and drug trafficking, especially fentanyl. The new deadline to impose the taxes is until March 4, but Sheinbaum is confident of being able to pause them permanently.
This Monday, Trump returned to the charge with the imposition of 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported by the United States, a measure with consequences for the global economy. The European Union has announced retaliation, China has already imposed it. For the moment, the Mexican market has resisted the onslaught.
Source: elpais
