(3 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexico City – 02 April 2025
1. Various of the made in Mexico electric bus Taruk
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Roberto Gottfried, CEO at Megaflux:
"The daily and intense use of public transportation in Mexico is one of the backbones of the country’s economic activity, so having a strong player in this area is very desirable in Mexico, both for technological mediation and for the safeguarding of national jobs."
3. Metaflux employees manufacturing engine parts
4 SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Roberto Gottfried, CEO at Megaflux:
"All issues that have to do with technological and industrial sovereignty are a safeguard against tariffs and taxes from outside. Therefore, a local industry, supplying a local product to (meet) a local need will always have an advantage over imports given the global situation in terms of supply chains and trade relations between all countries."
5. Metaflux employees manufacturing engine parts
STORYLINE:
The green bus is 9.5 meters long, has a capacity for 60 passengers and is the first electric bus made in Mexico.
In the face of sweeping new tariffs announced by the United States, the Megaflux transport project, called Taruk, which means ‘roadrunner’ in the Yaqui Indigenous language, represents an economic oasis for the Mexico and a source of stability.
"The daily and intense use of public transportation in Mexico is one of the backbones of the country’s economic activity, so having a strong player in this area is very desirable in Mexico, both for technological mediation and for the safeguarding of national jobs," explained Roberto Gottfried, CEO at Megaflux.
On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced far-reaching new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners — a 34% tax on imports from China and 20% on the European Union, among others — that threaten to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars.
Spared for the moment from the latest round of tariffs were Mexico and Canada, so far as goods that already qualified under their free trade agreement with the United States.
Yet, the previously announced 25% tariffs on auto imports were scheduled to take effect at midnight.
Analysts say the tariffs threat is not gone and that both markets and countries will have to get used to this uncertainty.
"Domestic content (made in Mexico) is fundamentally linked to Mexico’s exporting power, and Mexico’s exporting power is linked to the United States, which is the destination for 80% of our exports," said Oscar Ocampo, researcher at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO).
"If you start to have obstacles when trading with the United States, the fundamental pillar on which everything else in Plan Mexico is based gets disrupted," he added.
Plan Mexico, a recent ambitious initiative to boost Mexico’s economy and reduce dependence on imports, includes major goals such as becoming the 10th economy of the world and strengthening national production, with the aim that 50% of what the country consumes should be "Made in Mexico."
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday she would wait to take action on Thursday when it was clear how Trump’s announcement would affect Mexico.
"It’s not a question of if you impose tariffs on me, I’m going to impose tariffs on you," she said in a news briefing Wednesday morning.
Sheinbaum said that a government objective is to strengthen the automotive industry and that "most of the vehicles that are bought in Mexico are manufactured in Mexico."
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