Angelica Campos often goes to Mexico for medical reasons. She's worried that if President-Elect Trump goes through with his plan for increased tariffs, prices will get even higher.
"I'm really afraid because we already are going through inflation. The cost of everything is so high, just pumping gas right now was kind of a shocker. I'm afraid of the costs going up even more," said Campos.
Monday, Trump announced on social media that he'll enact sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China as part of his plan to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. Nikia Clarke is the Senior Vice President of the Regional Economic Development Corporation. According to Clarke, EDC helps ensure companies have the tools to grow and thrive on both sides of the border.
Clarke said this is no time to panic.
"We've been here before. We remember 2016, and so I think when you look at the market response everyone is, our tolerance has to go up for uncertainty, and we remember how to do that," said Clarke.
The incoming president threatens 25% across-the-board tariffs on Mexico and Canada if the countries don't crack down on their borders with the US.
Trump also says he might add an additional 10% tax on goods coming in from China.
According to CAL Matters, California could be hit especially hard, with China and Mexico accounting for 40% of the state's imports last year.
Clarke said small businesses could be hit the hardest.
"One thing that we saw in the past and we will continue to see, when things are most volatile, it hits small businesses hardest; almost all of the exporters in the United States are small businesses, about 98% of them, so when the rules change, the rules of the road change really quickly around international business they're the ones that suffer," said Clarke.
If businesses pass that suffering on to the consumer, everything from gas to groceries to electronics could cost more.
"Here in the cross border region, we look at medical devices. We have the largest medical device manufacturing clustering in the world, a lot of electronics, the automobile industry all of these things have really extensive cross-border supply chains they have for decades.
But Clarke said our region also has a unique advantage.
"In some ways, our industries are actually less reliant on Mexico than in a lot of the midwest and other parts of the country so I think that's also important as you start looking at the impacts of trade policy," said Clarke.
