Vice President Mike Pence said the meeting with Mexico's Foreign Minister June 5 was positive, but emphasized that the Mexican efforts to stem migration from Central America -- and its proposals for future action -- "are not nearly enough." Pence, who spoke to reporters before leaving on a trip to honor the D-Day anniversary, said, "We made clear to them that President [Donald] Trump is going to continue to stand firm until we bring this crisis of illegal immigration at our southern border to an end."

Universal Electronics Inc. CEO Paul Arling considered hypothetical solutions at a Tuesday investor conference in response to analyst questions on the company’s plans for manufacturing in light of the Trump administration’s plans to impose tariffs next week on goods brought in from Mexico. UEI was “a little surprised -- unpleasantly surprised” to hear of Donald Trump's plan for tariffs on goods imported from Mexico (see 1905310033) with the company in the midst of moving “a good percentage” of manufacturing from China to a facility in Monterrey, Mexico, Arling said. The company has historically produced goods such as remote controls in China, but it began last year shifting “nearly half of our units” out of China because “we do not wish to absorb a 25 percent increase; nor do our customers.” On how UEI plans to respond to Mexican imports, set to kick in at 5 percent Monday and rise incrementally to 25 percent in October, Arling said, “we’re going to play that by ear.” He referenced the company’s past efforts to find production locations “other than China,” listing the Philippines, where it has some operations, and Vietnam as options. It took six months to move from China to Mexico, Arling said. UEI looked at opening a factory in the U.S. “a few years back” but decided “you’d be so cost uncompetitive that you wouldn’t be able to compete -- you wouldn’t even be close on price,” Arling said.

The International Trade Commission recently issued Revision 6 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Changes include the removal of Turkey from the Generalized System of Preferences program (see 1905170004), including its elimination from the list of GSP countries in General Note 4 and the removal of Turkish goods from the list of country-product pairs ineligible for GSP. The new version also removes Turkey from the lists in U.S. Notes 17 and 18 to Chapter 99 of developing countries exempt from safeguard duties on washing machines and solar cells. These changes took effect May 17. Effective May 20, the tariff schedule is amended to remove additional Section 232 tariffs on steel products from Turkey provided for in U.S. Note 16 to Chapter 99 and in subheading 9903.80.02, so that Turkey is now subject to the 25% tariff applicable to most other countries. Finally, Revision 6 includes changes to reflect the recently announced exemption of Mexico and Canada from Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum (see 1905170044), with modifications to U.S. Note 16 to Chapter 99 and subheadings 9903.80.01 and 9903.85.01 that took effect May 20.

Universal Electronics Inc. CEO Paul Arling considered hypothetical solutions at a Tuesday investor conference in response to analyst questions on the company’s plans for manufacturing in light of the Trump administration’s plans to impose tariffs next week on goods brought in from Mexico. UEI was “a little surprised -- unpleasantly surprised” to hear of Donald Trump's plan for tariffs on goods imported from Mexico (see 1905310033) with the company in the midst of moving “a good percentage” of manufacturing from China to a facility in Monterrey, Mexico, Arling said. The company has historically produced goods such as remote controls in China, but it began last year shifting “nearly half of our units” out of China because “we do not wish to absorb a 25 percent increase; nor do our customers.” On how UEI plans to respond to Mexican imports, set to kick in at 5 percent Monday and rise incrementally to 25 percent in October, Arling said, “we’re going to play that by ear.” He referenced the company’s past efforts to find production locations “other than China,” listing the Philippines, where it has some operations, and Vietnam as options. It took six months to move from China to Mexico, Arling said. UEI looked at opening a factory in the U.S. “a few years back” but decided “you’d be so cost uncompetitive that you wouldn’t be able to compete -- you wouldn’t even be close on price,” Arling said.

Universal Electronics (UEI) CEO Paul Arling was “a little surprised -- unpleasantly surprised” -- to learn of President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Mexican imports (see 1905310014) just as the company is shifting "a good percentage” of production from China to Monterrey, Mexico, to escape the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, he told an investor conference Tuesday.

Tariffs on Mexican imports would have a profound impact on the U.S. TV business if the Trump administration were to make good on its threat to impose 25 percent duties by Oct. 1 (see 1905310044), suggests our analysis of International Trade Commission import data. ITC statistics show the monetary fallout from 25 percent duties on finished TVs imported from Mexico could possibly exceed that of the threatened 25 percent Section 301 List 4 tariffs on TVs from China, even though China ships many more TVs to the U.S. than Mexico does.

Members of Congress are hoping that President Donald Trump won't follow through with his threat, but are also talking about how they might respond if he does impose 5 percent tariffs on all Mexican imports.

Tariffs on Mexican imports would have a profound impact on the U.S. TV business if the Trump administration were to make good its threat to impose 25 percent duties by Oct. 1 (see 1905310014), suggests our analysis of International Trade Commission import data. ITC statistics show the monetary fallout from 25 percent duties on finished TVs imported from Mexico could possibly exceed that of the threatened 25 percent Section 301 List 4 tariffs on TVs from China, even though China ships many more TVs to the U.S. than Mexico does.

So grave would be the "ripple effect" damage to Americans if President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to impose tariffs on Mexican imports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce won’t rule out mounting a legal challenge to block the duties, said the business group’s chief policy officer. "We have no choice but to explore every option available to push back,” Executive Vice President Neil Bradley told journalists Friday. To stem the influx of migrants at the southern border, Trump will use authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose 5 percent tariffs on Mexican imports starting June 10, the president said. “If the crisis persists,” he would hike the duties to 10 percent July 1, 15 percent Aug. 1, 20 percent Sept. 1, and 25 percent Oct. 1.

President Donald Trump tweeted over the weekend, "Mexico is sending a big delegation to talk about the Border. Problem is, they’ve been 'talking' for 25 years. We want action, not talk. They could solve the Border Crisis in one day if they so desired. Otherwise, our companies and jobs are coming back to the USA!"