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Along the southern U.S. border, where trade is a critical part of the economy, there's a sense of relief that Mexico will not face additional new tariffs - at least for now - and here's why. Thousands of manufacturing plants in Mexico are part of supply chains that extend into the U.S., and the companies that keep the flow of goods moving smoothly across the border are among today's perceived winners amid shifting trade policies. Angela Kocherga from member station KTEP reports from El Paso.
ANGELA KOCHERGA, BYLINE: Cargo trucks going back and forth to Mexico rumble past EP Logistics' huge El Paso facility. The company is strategically located near a busy international bridge. Here on the border, tariff uncertainty created urgent demand for warehouses and customs brokerage services, says EP Logistics president Octavio Saavedra.
OCTAVIO SAAVEDRA: Nobody really paid attention to us before all these tariffs, and now we've become very popular around here because we're the ones that have to calculate what the implications are going to be.
KOCHERGA: In anticipation of higher tariffs, companies are rushing their products across the border and trying to figure out costs created by potential new fees. Saavedra's warehouses are filled with goods, including electronic components, medical devices and a variety of car parts that are distributed through supply chains across the U.S.
SAAVEDRA: All over the country, to their Tier 1 customers - you know, like Honda, Toyota, General Motors and so on.
KOCHERGA: There are also finished products like refrigerators.
SAAVEDRA: Yes, these are refrigerators that are coming in from Mexico. These already paid the duties. They cleared customs, so they're doing a transload from one trailer to the other.
KOCHERGA: Mexico is the United States' top trading partner. In the El Paso area alone, trade totaled more than $150 billion last year. Higher tariffs on China during the first Trump administration, along with broken supply chains during the pandemic, spurred growth in this border region. More companies moved their operations to neighboring Mexico.
SAAVEDRA: Good with that. And we saw this big boom here in the southern border. I mean, as you can see, there's a bunch of buildings going up here in El Paso and also in Juarez.
KOCHERGA: President Trump says his ultimate goal is for manufacturers to return to the U.S., but that will take time, says Tony Payan, director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University's Baker Institute.
TONY PAYAN: It's going to be a very long-term proposition where companies will eventually have to move billions of dollars to do that.
KOCHERGA: In just the first few months of the Trump administration, the threat of new tariffs before they were imposed was enough to slow growth and investment on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, says Border Industrial Association president Jerry Pacheco.
JERRY PACHECO: And we have companies that have shelved projects to expand their operations, others that are taking a smaller footprint. It's been a struggle to get through this period of time.
KOCHERGA: And the continued uncertainty about tariffs may determine who survives and who thrives. For NPR News, I'm Angela Kocherga in El Paso.
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