SAN DIEGO - President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took their disagreement over who should pay for the new border wall to the phones.
The leaders talked on Friday about Mr. Trump’s plan to tax Mexican imports 20-percent to pay for a new divide.
And some San Diegans are already planning for the cost to be passed onto them.
There’s a reason David Stovall goes out of his way to shop for groceries at Vons in La Mesa.
“They have fresh vegetables and stuff in that store,” he said.
He says he needs them since it's doctor’s orders. But Stovall has noticed something about the prices.
“Well, tomatoes have been hot for quite a while,” Stovall said.
And that heat could keep rising. That's if President Trump's latest idea to pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border comes to fruition.
Pres. Trump is floating a 20-percent import tax on goods from Mexico, from produce to car parts, a cost that would eventually reach San Diego shoppers.
The U.S. imported nearly $300 billion worth of goods from Mexico in 2015.
Electric machinery, optical and medical instruments, alcohol and snack foods are some of the products that came across the border, according to the office of the United States Trade Representative.
“A lot of these products are just going to get more expensive, so they can't afford that to happen,” Seth Kaplowitz, a finance lecturer at San Diego State University, said.
But others, like Jessa Valdez, who supports Trump, said it's worth the price.
“i'm going to buy produce no matter what. It's going to charge whatever the going rate is for tomatoes, which i definitely understand,” Valdez said.
Stovall said he'd rather not contribute to the wall.
“I don’t feel that's right,” he said.
But if prices keep going up, he said he'll spend less time in the produce section.
