Iowa’s top Republican leaders criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Mexico to stop the ongoing influx of migrants from Central America to…
Iowa’s top Republican leaders criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Mexico to stop the ongoing influx of migrants from Central America to the U. S.-Mexico border.
“We need to secure the border and address our nation’s broken immigration system, but it cannot be done on the backs of Iowa farmers,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement Friday.
“Iowans are frustrated with Washington’s inability to reform our country’s immigration system and address the crisis at the border,” Reynolds said, “but I am asking the president to rethink this approach.”
Trump announced the new tariffs Thursday in a tweet:
“On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump tweeted, adding that the “tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied.”
Trump’s announcement is the latest move from the White House to try to prevent migrants — the majority of whom are coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — from crossing into the United States via Mexico.
Reynolds joined Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst in disagreeing with the president, saying the move would jeopardize ratification of a new U. S. trade deal with Mexico and Canada.
“While I support the need for comprehensive border security and a permanent fix to illegal immigration, this isn’t the right path forward,” Ernst said in a statement Friday.
The Trump administration announced last week it would spend $16 billion helping farmers slammed by ongoing trade disputes with China, Mexico, Canada and other countries. It follows $12 billion in emergency aid provided last year to U. S. farmers.
More: Trump trade bailout complicates tough decisions for farmers facing water-logged fields
“The livelihoods of Iowa farmers and producers are at stake,” Ernst said. “The USMCA would provide much-needed certainty to our agriculture community, at a time when they need it.”
The U. S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
In a call with reporters Friday, Ernst said “we can’t use tariffs all the time, for every single situation.
“Let’s get this trade deal off the table, then we can focus on ways to partner with Mexico to stop this humanitarian crisis we have on our southern border,” said Ernst, who touted the Trump administration’s approval Friday of expanded E15 use.
Curt Mether, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association board, said the “trade hits keep coming” for Iowa farmers.
He said Mexico is an important U. S. export market, buying $3.3 billion in corn and corn products in 2017. “We need trade wars to stop,” said Mether, a southwest Iowa farmer.
Grassley said Trump’s new tariffs are “a misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent.”
“Trade policy and border security are separate issues,” Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.
As an alternative, Grassley suggested Trump consider imposing fees on the billions in remittances sent every year from the U. S. to Mexico,”which only encourage illegal immigration and don’t help the U.
