MCALLEN, TEXAS - Hopefully, a revised USMCA will allow Mexico to avoid being impacted by the new tariffs President Trump is trying to impose - in which case the new tariffs on steel from Mexico would be eliminated.

This is the view of Jorge Torres, president of Rio Grande Valley-based Interlink Trade Services. Torres gave an update on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiations at a recent meeting of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation Stakeholders Committee.

“The USMCA revision is happening right now. Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have had meetings. And the meetings have been somewhat positive,” Torres said.

“Obviously, they're looking at reinforcing the supply chain in the three countries. And that is something that is critical for us. They want to enforce the rules of origin on regional value content. They want to get more regional content, obviously.”

Torres continued: “Mexico is pushing for not being affected by external tariffs, which is Sections 122, 301, 232 and all that. That's an uphill fight, but hopefully they'll get there, somehow. That will be critical to getting rid of the steel tariffs and the Section 301 investigations, all the tariffs that the President wants to impose. If they can isolate Mexico, that would be great. But again, that's an uphill battle, because the U.S. is demanding a lot of Mexico.”

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PORT ISABEL, Texas - Saronic Technologies, the Austin-based defense technology startup that is considering building a shipyard at the Port of Brownsville, places a big emphasis on developing a young workforce.

So says Chris Johnson, director for the company’s shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana.

“Saronic is really, really good at is bringing on younger talent and training it,” Johnson said, during a presentation he and three of his colleagues made to Point Isabel ISD.

By way of an example, Johnson told the story of the shipyard in Franklin.

“Louisiana has long had a problem with young graduates in STEM, specifically engineering, electrical, and mechanical. Many different types of engineers have to leave Louisiana… because there aren't good jobs for those professionals. But we're helping reduce what they call the brain drain, where young professionals leave because there's not enough jobs for them. Saronic has done a really good job of addressing that in Franklin. I suspect we'll do it here again in Brownsville, given that chance.”

Johnson said there is a “buzz around Saronic” because “our culture is different.”

Doug Lambert, a co-founder and COO of Saronic, agreed.

“We've up skilled that workforce (in Louisiana). We have welders who are becoming engineers. We have pipe fitters who are growing in their careers. And that's something that's incredibly important to Saronic. We have a robust kind of jobs skill training pipeline that we've been prototyping here in Louisiana, and could potentially bring here to Brownsville, Texas.”

Lambert said the company thinks about manufacturing differently to most.

“These are not dirty jobs. We think about them in a way that is incredibly, incredibly tech-forward and people-forward and process-forward. So we tend to invest in our employees. We like to up-skill and create new opportunities that folks otherwise wouldn't have gotten in the area. And that really is reflected in how we build out infrastructure,” Lambert said.

Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the RGG Business Journal website.

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MCALLEN, Texas - Durante un seminario web el 4 de marzo, el presidente de Interlink Trade Services, Jorge Torres, explicó que la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos declaró ilegales los aranceles impuestos bajo la Ley de Poderes Económicos de Emergencia Internacional (IEEPA), lo que abre la puerta a posibles reembolsos estimados en unos $133 millones, aunque aún no se ha establecido un mecanismo claro para su devolución.

Torres advirtió que la eliminación de los aranceles de la IEEPA fue seguida por la implementación de la Sección 122, que introduce un recargo inicial del 10 % que podría aumentar al 15 % y que se mantendrá temporal hasta finales de julio, mientras la Casa Blanca evalúa otras herramientas, como las Secciones 232 y 301, para mantener la presión comercial.

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