KALISPELL: President Trump’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border is potentially running up against its own walls. This as he looks for ways to pay for it in a way that don’t leave Americans on the hook. The president’s repeated insistence that Mexico will foot the bill has now antagonized Mexico’s president to the point of calling off next week’s scheduled meeting. The administration is floating a plan to slap a twenty percent tax on Mexican imports. A way to fund the estimated $8 billion to $14 billion wall. Under that plan it would be Americans who’d probably end up paying more for imports. In effect footing the bill themselves. The White House later walking back on the plan, saying it’s an just one option they are considering.
If you head to any major grocery store, you can see for yourself just how much of what we buy is grown or made in Mexico. Avocados, limes, you name it, the United States imported an estimated $21 billion of agricultural products from Mexico in 2015. Little wonder some shoppers we found aren’t big fans of any sort of tax that could end with them paying more at the register. “I think that we don’t get a ton of produce in the winter anyway so it will all go up quite a bit and I think people will be pretty upset about it,” Mariah Hurd said. “We are already struggling to make ends meet so it’s just not a good idea,” Kat Lanegan said. For some though the idea is welcome. They see it as the cost of reducing illegal immigration. “We all have a responsibility to put in our two cents worth, and if that means a few more cents per avocado, then so be it because we should be more responsible and we all love our country and we all want it to be safe and protected,” Jeanne Hendrickson said.
Some say it might even create more jobs. “I’m all for increasing american jobs if the price has to go up to secure our boarders then I am for that, I think it’s a cheap price to pay for doing it than the price were going to end up paying for not doing it,” Steve Johnson said. The federal government tracks imports from Mexico to Montana, $17 million worth of imports in 2012, $100 million in 2015, so that means if there was a 20 percent tax added, Montanans would have to kick in an extra 20 million dollars. That’s if the prices are passed on to consumers and alternative and cheaper sources can’t be found.
