Mexican-made heavy equipment is being targeted in the latest Section 232 national security probes. These analyses are required before imposition of new tariffs. The claim is that such manufacturing should be performed in the US.
There’s some merit to argue that for national defense the US should have a vibrant heavy equipment manufacturing sector. If you think wars of the future will be fought with tanks, ships, airplanes, and large landing craft, the US should be able to ramp up production fast in case of a war.
Current wars aren’t fought that way. They are waged with missiles, drones, and portable explosives of many different kinds, delivered with high-tech mechanisms. And the Ukraine war and even Iran have shown that conventional forces can be stymied by the high-tech alternatives.
High-tech mechanisms are well within US manufacturing capabilities. There are plenty of jobs available at good wages, if you get the training.
A second argument for the tariffs is based on jobs for workers. High-paying manufacturing jobs are good for those who have them and like the lifestyle. But increasingly, young people are not choosing those jobs, preferring work settings that give them the ability to define their leisure time as they wish. Conventional heavy manufacturing does not fit that mold.
And in the US we have a declining work force, particularly if we choose not to let in immigrants for whom such jobs would be desirable.
So where are the workers going to come from?
We could be better off by cultivating our relations with Mexico and allow them to do the heavy manufacturing of automobile-like components.
Noi Mahoney Wednesday, April 01, 2026
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/us-tariff-fight-shifts-to-heavy-machinery-imported-from-mexico
Supply Chain and Logistics 