Small businesses cautiously optimistic despite concerns over Trump’s Mexico tariffs: Former SBA administrator
Small companies are bracing for the impact from the Trump administration’s 5 percent tariffs on imports coming in from Mexico.
“They are concerned and obviously small businesses are always looking for Plan B,” former SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said on “After the Bell” Wednesday. “But they are also cautiously optimistic.”
The new tariffs would affect 58 percent of U.S. businesses that import products from Mexico who have fewer than 20 employees, according to the International Trade Administration.
Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard at the White House as one of the America’s largest trading partner looks to avoid the tariffs President Trump threatened to impose as a result of migrants crossing the nation’s southern border.
“At least the leaders are talking to each other and that is the best place for them to engage and to come up with solutions that help both countries,” Barreto said.
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Barreto said the U.S.-Mexico trade dispute is a much bigger story for the small business community he represents than the current China trade war.
“There’s no doubt there would be immediate impact on businesses on both sides of the southern border,” he said.