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UTRGV professor discusses potential tariff impacts

UTRGV professor discusses potential tariff impacts
3 days 19 hours 55 minutes ago Tuesday, February 04 2025 Feb 4, 2025 February 04, 2025 10:10 PM February 04, 2025 in News - Local

While a pause was issued American tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, they’re in effect for goods from China.

As of Tuesday, the U.S. Postal Service is not accepting packages from China. It’s a decision that may block or delay packages from popular retailers such as Shein and Temu.

Gautam Hazarika, UTRGV’s chair of the economics department, says an all out trade war may have been avoided.

“President Trump is using this as a foreign policy tool,” Hazarika said. “He wants to pressurize these countries to reduce drug trafficking from their territories and to reduce illegal immigration."

Harazika said if the pause is lifted next month, businesses will feel the sting — which means so will buyers. 

“The tariff is going to be burdened by the Americans because it's the importer that pays the tax,” Harazika said. 

Mexico provides a large amount of fruits and vegetables to the U.S. While the U.S. imports about $4 million barrels per day of oils from Canada, that's used to make gas.

While the 10% tax tariff on oil, natural gas and energy products from Canada is paused, what happens next has a business owner worried.

“At the end of the day, we are all going to be impacted by the tariffs globally,” A+CDL Academy in San Benito Director Alonzo Olivares said.

The academy has two big rigs they use to teach students. Every week they use 250 gallons of diesel for each truck, which amounts to about $6,000 a month for fuel.

“Any price increase would have a significant impact on our finances because we utilize and depend on diesel to operate,” Olivares said.

Olivares says their business would have to restructure their lesson plans.

Professor Hazarika said many jobs could also be at risk now that China is retaliating against the U.S. with its own tariffs.

“So a lot of jobs are on the line here because lots of our U.S. workers are producing goods sold to China," Hazarika said.

Watch the video above for the full story. 

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