LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The new tariffs will not immediately hike prices for imports from Mexico, which was given a 90-day extension. We're going to check in now with Angela Kocherga of member station KTEP in El Paso, Texas. Good morning, Angela.
ANGELA KOCHERGA, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So is this 90-day reprieve welcome news for businesses along the Mexico-U.S. border?
KOCHERGA: Well, you might think so, but not really. It merely prolongs the pain created by the incredible uncertainty we've experienced here for many, many months. And that's led to paralysis on both sides of the border. It's really hard to plan if you're a business, not knowing how much you'll pay for the higher taxes, the higher tariffs for goods you're importing or exporting. And here in El Paso and all along the southern border, it's really one economy that happens to be split by an international boundary line. Manufacturing, supply chains, logistics, trucking, warehousing, that flows both ways. So it's really one big trade community.
FADEL: OK. So let's talk a bit more about that tariff uncertainty. How is that playing out where you live?
KOCHERGA: Well, we have five ports of entry here in the El Paso region. Some are international bridges over the Rio Grande. Others are land border crossings, and there are four on the Texas side and one just over the state line in New Mexico. Now, in this cross-border manufacturing, the supply chains include car parts, for example, and those cross back and forth multiple times. There are medical devices, home appliances like washers and dryers, refrigerators, too. And I spoke with Jerry Pacheco. He's a president of the Border Industrial Association in New Mexico, and he says companies are stuck in neutral.
JERRY PACHECO: I've personally had two deals in the automotive industry, one for expansion, one for recruitment that were shelved, and another in the electronics industry because there's no way that a manager's going to make a strategic business decision in these uncertain conditions.
KOCHERGA: And this is an example at just one port of entry. It's happening all along the U.S.-Mexico border.
FADEL: OK. So how are these companies managing this right now?
KOCHERGA: Well, just a few months ago, they got a little bit of a taste of what might happen if Mexican tariffs took effect for about a day. Back in March, actually, they were instituted for one day and then rolled back. And what we saw in the lead-up to that, and even since then, some businesses began to stockpile what they could on the U.S. side of the border. But there's a cost involved for warehousing and other types of costs. So it's very complicated. If you're trying to beat the clock and want to bring goods across the border before they're needed, everything has to be stored somewhere.
FADEL: And what does it take to levy tariffs there on the border?
KOCHERGA: Well, the process is fairly simple as far as, you know, looking at the computerized system and seeing what's been updated in the higher tariffs. So that might be considered easy. The hard part is the human element. Those are the people at the ports of entry who enforce the new tariffs, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. And they have to keep an eye out for shippers who might be violating the tariffs, either by mistake or trying to evade paying the higher costs. And business leaders on both sides of the border want more funding to increase staff at international border crossings to move those goods more quickly across the border - for example, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, more of them to inspect cargo trucks.
FADEL: OK. That's Angela Kocherga of member station KTEP in El Paso, Texas. Thank you so much.
KOCHERGA: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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