BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Trump administration agreed Monday morning to put a pause on tariffs on Mexican goods imported to the United States for another month as part of a deal in which the Southern neighbors will send more troops to the border.
However, at the time Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke to reporters, the U.S. still had plans in place to begin imposing 25% tariffs on product from Canada, 10% on Canadian energy and 10% on Chinese goods.
"I cannot overstate how bad this is for New York," Hochul said.
Late Monday afternoon, the administration announced it had reached a similar deal with Canada postponing an escalating trade war for at least a month. Hochul, meanwhile, said her office is in constant communication with Canadian and provincial governments.
"What is at jeopardy are thousands of jobs that rely on this flow of commerce without interruption and as well as a tariff is nothing but a backdoor tax," Hochul said.
The 11th hour deals illustrate the level of uncertainty around North American trade talks ignited by Trump in his first weeks in office. The New York State Business Council said it hopes for more answers soon.
"The questions are kind of a wait and see like everybody else but if it's anything like what's been talked about, it's certainly going to have an immediate cost impact on consumers," Communications Director Pat Bailey said.
Bailey said the biggest immediate concern is for manufacturing in border regions like Western New York and the North Country. He said last year New York exported 14% of its manufactured goods, worth roughly $110 billion, to Canada.
"We have manufacturers that have contracts in the U.S. that didn't anticipate a 25% increase at some point so it's going to be difficult for them to comply with maybe current contracts that are in place. There's a huge ripple effect that's going to take place here," Bailey said.
He said the council has been working with other state chambers of commerce as well as the U.S. Chamber for some time now, as Trump has publicly threatened the tariffs. Bailey said they will be prepared to react accordingly including sharing the stories of impacts on their members.
"Hopefully our voice will resonate once, if there is a lot of negative impact," he said.