By Sherry Robinson
All She Wrote
© 2026 New Mexico News Services
Jerry Pacheco probably doesn’t own a crystal ball, but at the end of the year he wrote: “Countries that strongly trade with each other do not go to war with each other. The animus and uncertainty caused by starting a tariff war put the U.S. on the road to fractured relationships and isolationism.”
Pacheco is executive director of the nonprofit International Business Accelerator in Santa Teresa. He’s spent his career advising on international trade and recruiting companies to the border region. In the last year Pacheco has opined in many a newspaper column on economic disruption and inflation caused by tariffs.
As I write today, Iran has choked off the Strait of Hormuz and the president, who has spent the past year insulting our allies and punishing them with tariffs, now wants their support to get oil shipments moving again.
Pacheco and every other expert I’ve read call tariffs a self-inflicted wound and a war that nobody wins. “In the post-World War 2 era, the U.S. and the Western world have been committed to free trade as a method by which trade ties can be increased, alliances can be formed, wealth created and wars averted,” he wrote.
As you probably know from your grocery bill, tariffs have been a burden on New Mexico consumers and businesses for months.
Take your cup of coffee, for example. Prices were already rising because of climate change and labor shortages in the small number of locations that can grow coffee. Then the president socked Brazil, which supplies about a third of our coffee, with a 50% tariff, reported Source New Mexico in August.
In May all nine of the state’s coffee roasters petitioned U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan to support the Trade Review Act of 2025 to allow Congress to approve tariff changes. Lujan was sympathetic. “I’ve not spoken to one business in New Mexico yet that has told me that they are applauding these tariffs, whether it’s a toy store, restaurants, a manufacturing wholesaler,” he said. The bill hasn’t moved.
Tariffs are supposed to protect domestic industry, but the U.S. has no coffee industry except for Hawaii, which produces a small share of the world’s coffee.
Legislators heard similar complaints last fall from manufacturers who testified before an interim committee.
Monti Inc., of Santa Teresa, makes copper busbar, a critical component in electrical equipment. Its plant manager said he supports the administration’s desire to reshore manufacturing, but his company imports all of its copper, reported Source New Mexico, because domestic supplies are insufficient. In August and September alone, the company had $3 million in additional costs but passed on just $1 million to customers; the balance ordinarily would have been used to grow the business.
“We’ve encountered headwinds unlike any we’ve ever seen before,” he said.
At the same hearing, the owner of retailer Eurozone Food Distributors, of Albuquerque, said that food was reaching a point where “there’s no profit to be made,” reported KOAT-TV.
Even more discouraging to businesses than the increased cost is the chaotic implementation, which makes planning impossible. As tariffs volley up and down, Eurozone is trying to order products from suppliers and deal with importers and shippers. Coffee roasters sign contracts months before beans reach the U.S. In Santa Teresa textile manufacturer Acme Mills might have shipping containers on the water.
In each case, the tariff might have doubled between the purchase of goods and their arrival. And as they pass along costs or eat costs, they’re working hard to contain those numbers.
Even Trump supporters are begging for some predictability.
From news accounts, tariffs have also hurt the state’s construction industry, furniture makers and agriculture. Early this year I was chagrined at the price spike for printer ink, a staple for my home office. Why? Toner and ink cartridges come from China, Mexico and Canada.
It’s no wonder that companies and states, including New Mexico, have sued to halt the tariffs.
Pacheco could see this coming in 2024, and he’s chronicled the path of economic destruction.
In July he talked to reporters about the business-killing uncertainty: “People are not placing orders, or they’re postponing buying decisions. And the other side is … the business we’re not getting because they’re not going to make a multi-million-dollar investment decision in this environment. I’ve seen three deals, two in the automotive industry and one in the electronics industry, totally go away.”
Right now, the United States needs some friends. Tariffs are no way to treat a friend.