Nogales leaders weigh in on what tariffs could mean along Arizona’s border

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NOGALES, AZ — The shadow of potentially tall tariffs looms over the booming trade along Arizona’s border with Mexico, however, some business leaders see the change of power as a renewed opportunity for trade negotiations.

In Nogales, more than $30 billion in trade goods cross through the ports every year, with business only growing between the two communities.

Jaime Chamberlain and his family have been running Chamberlain Distributing for 54 years, bringing Mexican produce into the United States through Nogales and distributing it across the country.

“We are part of the food supply chain that is extremely important to you in Tucson, in Phoenix, in Flagstaff, in Boston, Philadelphia, all over the United States and Canada,” Chamberlain said. “We have the opportunity to feed North America.”

After the election, Chamberlain is paying close attention to how President-elect Donald Trump works with Mexico’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum to keep produce and manufactured goods flowing across the border.

When Trump first took office, China was the largest trading partner to the US, but now it’s Mexico, upping the stakes for negotiations between the countries.

“Being each other's number-one trading partner, we have to have some specific and some certain considerations for that as well,” Chamberlain said.

Trump has repeatedly touted all tariffs on Mexican goods like auto parts and additional tariffs on all other imports unless Mexico plays ball in helping enforce border security like combating human smuggling and curtailing the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl.

While tariffs are nothing new as a trade tool, widespread tariffs on Mexico like those proposed would go beyond what was implemented in Trump’s first term.

“We really didn’t have a big issue with him putting barriers in our commercial borders,” Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado, who was a councilmember during Trump’s first term, said. “We’ve got to work together.”

As business between the two countries is intertwined with calls for stricter border security, Maldonado says communities like his need a seat at the table.

“Because that's the main thing, listening to what our border issues are, listening to what our good and bad are, and working together and supporting our community,” Maldonado said.

He does worry about the impact of tariffs on industry and everyday Americans.

“If we lose growers, if we lose producers, manufacturers...(it's) going to hurt our pockets,” Maldonado said.

As for Chamberlain, he sees Trump’s return to office as an opportunity.

“An opportunity to educate that new administration… what we do as a whole really affects North America,” Chamberlain said.

He said he trusts negotiation power and says the multi-billion-dollar trade is just too important for both countries.

“At the end of the day, what really matters is what’s agreed to,” Chamberlain said. “I hope we realize before we get to that point how important, how interwoven we are culturally, economically, and, you know what, security-wise as well.”

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