Beneath tariff menace, US wholesaler warns: ‘Folks pays’

By Jackie Luna

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Whereas most of Los Angeles sleeps, 58-year-old Melquiades Flores begins his day at 1 a.m., supervising the unloading of produce at M&M Tomatoes and Chile Firm, the wholesaler he began in 2019.

However the enterprise that Flores hopes to go to his kids at some point is bracing for a disruption.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada when he takes workplace on Jan. 20, plus an extra 10% tariff on Chinese language items.

“Produce of Mexico” is stamped on virtually all of the bins of tomatoes and chilies that arrive at Flores’ downtown warehouse, destined for houses, motels and restaurant kitchens throughout town.

“Folks must pay a better worth. No matter they cost us, we’ll go on to the patron,” Flores mentioned from his part of the bigger advanced, the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market.

It doesn’t matter what occurs in January, Flores says he has no choice however to maintain importing produce from Mexico, particularly within the winter. The chili-growing season in California lasts 4 months, from August to November, he says. The remainder of the yr, he will get the produce from the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Baja California and Sonora.

His staff stacks bins upon bins of tomatoes in each dimension and shade of crimson, plus some shiny inexperienced ones for making zesty tomatillo sauce.

“Any tariff is an added tax that impacts all of us, together with those that purchase a pound, two kilos, or a thousand or 10,000 kilos,” mentioned Flores, who has lived in Los Angeles for 40 years and is initially from the Mexican state of Morelos.

Trump has pronounced his love of tariffs, presumably for elevating income and defending U.S. industries towards imports, however he avoids talking concerning the inflationary impact or the impression of potential retaliation from the US’ high three buying and selling companions.

Officers from Mexico, Canada and China and main trade teams have warned that the tariffs Trump proposes would hurt the economies of all concerned, trigger inflation to spike and injury job markets.

“The president ought to have first seen how a lot this may impression everybody earlier than talking,” Flores mentioned.

(This story has been corrected to say ‘chili-growing season,’ not ‘tomato-growing season,’ in paragraph 6)