Mexico Escapes the Tariff: Happy Cinco de Mayo! – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Monday marks Cinco de Mayo — not actually much of a holiday in Mexico, but an important date for Mexican food and drink-loving Americans, to be sure.

This year, the probability is that Americans’ Cinco de Mayo is costing slightly more than last year, thanks to lingering Bidenflation. Perhaps we should count ourselves lucky. Early in the second Trump administration, the White House planned to impose tariffs on goods coming in from Mexico despite the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, USMCA. But Trump deciding instead to stick by his signature trade deal from his first term has meant revelers have dodged an extra 25 percent hit to their wallets on items ranging from tequila to beer to tomatoes to avocados to onions.

Mexico is the top country of origin for all of these foods, and yes, the drinks, too. Herez and Cholula salsas are also made in Mexico, though as we all know from Pace’s “New York City” ads in the 1990’s, one can of course buy American-made salsas with ease. They just might not satisfy picky consumers’ tastes.

U.S. consumers’ reliance on imported product from Mexico shouldn’t be surprising where tequila is concerned — though it is worth noting that as of 2022, over twice as much of it sold in the U.S. than in Mexico, so the size and scope of the U.S. market might cause some to do a double take.

More eye-popping is the fact that for over a year now, Mexico-made Modelo has been the top-selling beer in America, increasing its sales by 12 percent in just the first six months of 2024. As of June 2024, Corona Extra was also the fifth best seller, and the third most popular beer brand in the country. Mexican Dos Equis and Tecate lag behind at numbers 27 and 30 — but they’re still more popular than Pabst Blue Ribbon and Yuengling.

So, thank goodness for Trump’s USMCA, or perhaps we should say muchisimas gracias. And three cheers to the prospect of the second Trump administration standing by it instead of tariffing Mexican goods again, before Cinco de Mayo 2026 rolls around — or maybe we should say ¡salud! Perhaps Marco Rubio, who Trump seems to have come to trust a great deal and who has historically taken pro-free trade stances, can help the President embrace a key victory from his first term and bank the win — on behalf of all lovers of foods imported from Mexico.

Not that this will save those celebrating Cinco de Mayo from higher prices thanks to tariffs altogether. Fun fact: As of this weekend, whether in the New York City Area, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, or Arizona, a ton of limes on sale at major supermarkets were imported from Peru. And ever since “Liberation Day,” products imported from Peru were subject to a 10 percent tariff. Grocery stores boast famously slim margins — one to three percent only, per food sector publication Toast.

And produce now on the shelves certainly wasn’t imported before April 2. So if you, or your local Mexican restaurant, have been buying up limes for use in margaritas, or salsa, or for accenting your beer or taco meat or whatever else, you did just see a spike in cost roughly equivalent to peak Bidenflation.

Now, limes do grow in some U.S. states — Florida, most notably. So do tomatoes, though a point of friction in the current fight over food and tariffs and “reshoring” production is that American consumers seem to hate Florida tomatoes and prefer Mexican ones, not merely because of price — but rather due to flavor.

Tomato importers say consumers prefer Mexican tomatoes because they are small and sweet — characteristics that flow from them being grown in greenhouses, whereas Florida tomatoes “are typically grown outdoors, picked green and ripened with a naturally occurring gas that helps extend shelf life and improve appearance.” America might have had an answer to this — curiously, thanks to  Vice President JD Vance. His investment fund backed AppHarvest, a pioneer in large-scale greenhouse tomato growth, though the business ultimately proved not to be a raging success.

So too, then, would be bringing back the proposal to tariff goods from Mexico currently covered by USMCA at a 25 percent rate. Perhaps the Veep can make that case to tariff fans in the administration like Peter Navarro and Jamieson Greer, and indeed the President who should understand this when it is explained from one (former) businessman to another.

As one might say in Mexico — or, frankly, quite a bit of Florida — ojala que si.

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