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The factory in northern Mexico was built to supply Americans. Just a few hours from Texas, about 80 percent of its air-conditioners and refrigeration units are sent to the United States.
President Trump’s tariffs threatened to upend its whole business — at least until the company devised a plan.
Before the tariffs took effect in March, only about 40 percent of its exports traded under the rules of a pact Mr. Trump signed in his first term. But when Mr. Trump agreed to suspend tariffs on any Mexican goods that fell under the agreement, the company’s leaders saw ways to adapt.
They sought out Mexican suppliers for products bound for the United States. They analyzed which products already complied with the pact’s rules but had not yet been certified as such. And they reconsidered projects that involved bringing in imports from outside North America.
“When you’re on a plane and there’s turbulence, you get really scared and you hold onto your seat,” said Xavier Casas, who oversees the factory for the company Danfoss, in the Mexican city of Apodaca. “But, you know, 99 percent of the time, the plane is going to land.”
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