San Diego and Baja California business leaders and elected officials are on a lobbying mission in Washington, D.C., this week as tariffs ripple through the cross-border economy.
A coalition of more than 140 people, organized by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, will be meeting with dozens of federal officials to talk about concerns over tariffs, funding cuts and other business policies of the Trump istration.
U.S. and global markets fell sharply Monday following new tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump last week. Some San Diego businesses have voiced concern that tariffs could harm their operations. Monday marked the third straight day of market turmoil.
“The decisions Washington, D.C., makes will, and are, having profound effects on San Diego’s regional economy,” said San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert in a Monday morning news conference from the Capitol. “We are not going to sit idle. We are going to make sure San Diego has a voice here.”
The president has said tariffs are necessary to build back U.S. manufacturing and undo trade imbalances. He said on X early Monday that “the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place.”
Chamber officials have stressed the importance of the binational economy, which is likely heavily affected by tariffs, particularly Mexico’s auto and manufacturing sectors. The chamber has made this trip to the Capitol for 17 years in a row (virtual during the pandemic), but this mission represents the largest number of Mexican officials participating.
Mexican leaders on the trip include Tecate Mayor Roman Cota, Baja California Congresswoman Ana Santana, and Tijuana Council Gina Arana, Heriberto Ramirez, Melissa Pacheco, Michel Garcia, Monica Padilla and Pablo Yañez.
“We have a great task ahead of us,” Santana said at the news conference. “There is a lot of uncertainty. In these meetings, we need to make a strong (case) for tools and infrastructure for the maquiladoras (Mexican factories) as a region, not as a country, not as a state, but as one region.”
Some of the biggest names the coalition will be meeting with are Pete Flores, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; California Sen. Adam Schiff; Trevor Kellogg, under secretary at the Department of Commerce; Brenda Johnson-Turner, assistant secretary of the Navy; and Sara Yun, director of the Bureau of Energy Resources.
Chamber spokesperson Hayley Marting said the coalition did not request a meeting with Trump directly, preferring to meet with many different agencies over the three-day trip. She said the thinking was the Oval Office would hear from multiple sources about their concerns.
National City Mayor Ron Morrison, at the Capitol with the coalition, said the decisions being made more than 2,600 miles away have a profound impact. It’s important, he said, for San Diego County leaders to keep showing up in Washington, D.C., eve after this trip.
“It is vitally important to have as much direct face-to-face interaction as possible to be up-to-date and properly be able to represent the needs of our region,” he said.
In addition to tariffs, leaders are also sharing concerns about funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health, which could affect research grants at San Diego universities, ongoing sewage issues in Baja California, disaster preparedness, health care, infrastructure, improvements to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, housing programs and the tourism industry.
Other local business groups, not in D.C. with the coalition, are also trying to bend the ear of federal officials. Tech San Diego, a technology industry trade group, sent a letter to the county’s congressional representatives Monday expressing concern over tariffs. Some of its include Qualcomm, Dexcom, Cooley, Qlik, Procopio and Semantic AI.
“These new tariffs will disproportionately impact the San Diego regional innovation economy, an economy powered by high-growth firms and a highly skilled, high-wage workforce,” wrote Kevin Carroll, executive director of Tech San Diego. “Many of our rely on complex global supply chains for critical components and materials, and these added costs will stifle investment in research, development and hiring. They will create uncertainty at a time when long-term planning and stability are more critical than ever.”
