San Antonio, TX —
President Donald Trump’s announcement of an aggressive new tariff policy has some business owners fearing the worst.
Jeff Cox of Avocado Love Marketing says in his 40 years of being in the produce business he’s never seen anything like the tariff policy until last month.
“They say ok you don’t have to pay anything,” Cox said. “Then we paid tariffs for three days. An average load cost about $25 thousand with tariffs at that time. So, we were basically out of $100 thousand in just three days.”
Wednesday President Trump detailed new tariffs on many countries, including a minimum 10 percent baseline tariff that goes into effect this Saturday. Neighboring countries Canada and Mexico, though still subject to prior tariffs, were exempt from new reciprocal tariffs. Cox says he hopes that doesn’t change for the sake of consumers.
“If they put the 25 percent tax like they did last time, avocados, for every dollar it’s a quarter,” Cox said. “A $2 avocado would be $2.50; a $3 avocado would be $3.75. It’s a log of money.”
Cox says for the sake of avocados he hopes Mexico continues to be spared in future tariff policy updates.
