Business owners in South Florida brace for impacts as Trump announces tariffs on all good from China, Canada and Mexico. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports
Robert Gewanter has been running M&M Liquors in Hialeah for decades.
“It’s just a misconception that it’s just gonna be 25%,” Gewanter said, standing in front of his tequila display.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
WATCH HEREHe said the Trump tariffs will force him to raise the price of the popular spirit from Mexico.
“The importer and the distributor will also take a markup depending on their increased cost, so the final out-of-pocket increase to the consumer will probably be more like 40% to 50%, not just 25%,” Gewanter said about tequila prices.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP
President Donald Trump levied 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods and 20% on products from China. That creates a long list of products whose prices could potentially rise, including cars and avocados from Mexico, auto parts and electronics from China, along with lumber and crude oil from Canada.
Dr. Albert Williams, chair of economics at Nova Southeastern University, says tariffs are a lose-lose proposition.
“All the economics that we study says that tariffs will cause the prices to go up on both sides, that’s why we’ve spent the last 50 years trying to reduce tariffs,” Williams said.
In his first term, Trump negotiated a free trade treaty with Canada and Mexico to replace NAFTA, and tweeted, “Great reviews on the new USMCA, thank you! Mexico and Canada will be wonderful partners in trade (and more) long into the future.”
Now, Mexico and Canada are imposing retaliatory tariffs against the United States.
“The United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner, their closest friend, at the same time they’re talking about working positively with Russia, with Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator; make that make sense,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a strong Trump ally, says the tariffs are designed to balance the scales of trade.
“It just, have a little patience with this, let it play out, see how it develops and I think at the end of the day, America is going to be better off, American consumers, American families and all of us as a nation and as a people,” Johnson said.
Back at the liquor store, I asked Gewanter if he’d rather not have to pass on higher prices to his customers.
“Absolutely I don’t want to, but this is capitalism,” he said.
Dr. Williams said the consumer won’t notice an immediate price increase because it takes time for the tariff costs to work their way through the supply chain, but perishable products like avocados would see the increase faster than something like tequila because there are already many tons of tequila already in warehouses in the United States.
