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Issue: Claudia Pavlovich

Arizona-Mexico work to improve rapport while nations collide

Sonoran Gov. Claudia Pavlovich and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)
Sonoran Gov. Claudia Pavlovich and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (Photo by Katie Campbell/Arizona Capitol Times)

On a December day in 2015, presidential candidate Donald Trump rallied his supporters in Mesa amid cheers for building a giant wall on the southern border and kicking out undocumented immigrants.

The day before, Gov. Doug Ducey held a holiday reception and joint press conference with his Sonoran counterpart, Claudia Pavlovich. The joint event speaks to the strong relationship budding between Arizona and Sonora, and perhaps Mexico at large, as the relationships between the two federal governments fracture.

But it also underscores the difficulty of building relationships as a border state. No matter how much local officials work to find opportunities with Mexico, their actions could be undermined by Trump’s language or actions.

There are obviously big limitations to locals’ abilities. For example, they can’t write or vote on federal laws, so they can’t change a broken immigration system or keep trade agreements intact.

Still, knowing the limitations, Ducey started broadcasting his interest in Mexico before he even took office. In December 2014, he tweeted a photo with Mexican General Consul Roberto Rodriguez Hernández, saying he looked forward to working with the Mexican official.

The tweets didn’t stop once he took office. Ducey frequently sends out photos of his meetings with Mexican officials, usually with notes of gratitude or hospitality.

It’s a far cry from the tense relationship between the two states in the aftermath of SB1070, a law passed in 2010 that targeted illegal immigration as anti-immigrant sentiment took hold in Arizona.

Ducey sees Arizona’s position as a border state as a benefit, not a liability, and his perspective is largely informed by economic realities. For instance, if the North American Free Trade Agreement were dismantled, as President Trump has suggested, Arizona could lose 236,000 jobs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimated.

“I come from the business community. I knew who my customer was. The customer can either make you very, very successful or the customer can put you out of business,” Ducey said.

Changing relationship

Ducey isn’t alone in his quest to improve relations between the two border states. He’s joined by dozens of business leaders and lawmakers at all levels, from mayors to U.S. senators. Groups routinely travel to Mexico to discuss economic and social issues, and Mexican dignitaries now frequently make stops in Arizona to glad-hand with elected officials here.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (Submitted Photo)
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (Submitted Photo)

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat who started as mayor soon after SB1070 passed, said it seemed like “our state government really turned our back on Mexico.”

Stanton has gone to Mexico 18 times since then. The city has opened two trade offices in Mexico, and Mexico opened a trade office in Phoenix, a sign of how far the relationship has come since then, the mayor said.

The governor himself has traveled to Mexico five times since taking office, according to the Arizona-Mexico Commission, including his first international trip as governor to Mexico City, something that hadn’t happened in a decade. He has also hosted Pavlovich in Arizona six times.

Angel Bours, vice president of the Sonora-Arizona Commission, said it’s clear the two governors have a strong relationship based on trust and a mutual understanding the states need to get along for the sake of the region’s economic health.

He said leaders on both sides of the border have been working on issues all over the spectrum, from trade to border wait times to water to education to social services.

“The relationship between the states goes beyond what the president does or says,” Bours said in Spanish.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry has focused intently on growing the business relationships between the two states and came out against ending NAFTA and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

These days, Arizona delegations are received “very, very warmly” in Mexico, chamber President Glenn Hamer said. National rhetoric hasn’t played heavily into talks between business leaders because the local folks are “operating in a different airspace,” he said.

Jessica Pacheco, president of the Arizona-Mexico Commission’s board and an Arizona Public Service executive, said the national rhetoric hasn’t popped up in meetings she has had with her Mexican counterparts. Instead, the binational meetings have swelled in attendance, and the groups have focused on their day-to-day realities, she said.

“The relationship between Arizona and Sonora, I don’t think it’s ever been better than it is right now,” Pacheco said.

Roots of discontent

Most sources for this story pointed to a common low point in the Arizona-Sonora relationship: SB1070, known colloquially as the “show me your papers” law.

The most controversial provision of SB1070 required law enforcement to check the legal status of people they suspected were in the country illegally, a provision critics said led to racial profiling.

The backlash from SB1070 was almost immediate, and the effort to repair the reputational damage to the state’s image is still in progress. Groups from around the country announced bans on travel to Arizona for conferences, some of which still remain intact.

In 2010, the year SB1070 passed, the governors of Arizona and Sonora held no joint meetings, according to the Arizona-Mexico Commission.

Couple the backlash from SB1070 with the notoriety of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s slogan as “America’s toughest sheriff” and his roundups of immigrants, and there’s a lot for the two sides of the border to overcome.

Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, said the pendulum has largely swung back in Arizona’s favor since SB1070 because of efforts that began at the state level before Trump took office.

But there’s a strong lesson to be learned from the SB1070 backlash, Wilson said.

“Tone matters. Business relationships are hard to form when the perception is totally negative,” he said.

After SB1070 became law, Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, anchored in Nogales, Arizona, said Arizonans became “persona non grata” in Mexico quickly.

“And we’ve been fighting it ever since,” he added.

The tide started turning in 2014, as pointed out by a National Public Radio story at the time, when Republicans, including then-Gov. Jan Brewer, who had signed SB1070 into law, sought to work with Mexican officials, and aggressive anti-immigration legislation at the state level had mostly dried up. The change of direction came after many dozens of CEOs of financial giants impressed upon the state’s leaders that they were squandering an opportunity.

Ducey didn’t want to discuss SB1070’s impact on the ability for the two states’ to communicate. He said he came into office and moved forward instead of focusing on the past.

“That’s the beauty of being an outsider and a newcomer to politics. I was able to go to Mexico City and pull out my business card and say, ‘Let me introduce myself, I’m the new governor, and I’m looking forward to a fresh start.’ And we erased and moved forward from that day,” Ducey said.

Trump’s comments

It’s a stark reversal from the recent past. During the Obama administration, Mexico and the U.S shared a congenial relationship while Arizona and Sonora were at odds.

Now, as the Arizona-Sonora relationship bloomed in recent years, the U.S.-Mexico relationship has eroded. Trump ran for office on a wave of border security fever, economic protectionism and isolationism. During the campaign, he said Mexican immigrants were rapists. As president, he floated the idea of adding a 20 percent tariff to goods coming to the U.S. from Mexico. He said the U.S. would build a “big, beautiful” border wall and Mexico would pay for it (Mexico disagrees with this idea).

For longstanding, trust-filled relationships, the president’s words don’t have a big impact, Jungmeyer said. But his words do sometimes require a response.

“Whoever you’ve been interacting with in Mexico, you kind of have to show them that I’m still the same person, our relationship is still the same. That may be a theme going on in American politics, but that doesn’t reflect what you and I have built together,” Jungmeyer said.

So much of the U.S-Mexico cooperation comes from local relationships, where the heart of the ties that bind the two nations are most obvious, said Shannon O’Neil, an immigration and trade expert at the foreign policy think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations.

Only in the past three decades has Mexico come to view the United States as a partner rather than an imperialist threat, O’Neil said. And the harsher, more nationalistic rhetoric coming from the White House could affect the way our southern neighbor views us and spark a nationalist response from Mexico, she said.

But local officials can counteract the national noise by making their voices heard in discussions with people in Mexico and with leaders in the U.S., O’Neil said.

“Stand up for Mexico. They will notice that, and that will go a long way to help build that relationship,” she said.

As for Ducey, he doesn’t think he should get involved in Mexican politics, and he appreciates that the people he works with in Sonora don’t try to get involved in American politics. And he recognizes big issues like comprehensive immigration reform and NAFTA renegotiation are out of his hands, though he can make it known to his federal friends what Arizona wants to see.

Still, the resiliency of the Arizona-Sonora relationship stood the test of a tumultuous election, and it became a true friendship, Ducey said.

“I do think that our relationship has grown stronger and more trusting because we never blinked during the entire campaign. We never cancelled or delayed a meeting,” he said.

Limits to the relationship

Rep. Diego Espinoza (D-Tolleson)
Rep. Diego Espinoza (D-Tolleson)

Rep. Diego Espinoza, D-Tolleson, who traveled with a bipartisan group of state lawmakers to Mexico in August, said Ducey has done well at improving the relationship with Mexico. But at the state level, the powers-that-be should be looking at ways to help Dreamers with tuition and licenses, something Ducey has largely avoided, Espinoza said.

While the governor has publicly said he wants Congress to pass legislation to allow Dreamers to stay in the U.S. permanently, he hasn’t taken steps to address the in-state tuition or driver’s license issues and has instead shied away from state policy related to the group of young immigrants.

“I just think he should include a bit more of the Latino caucus and the Democrats in general,” Espinoza said.

Stanton said improving conditions for Latinos in Arizona through policies that help Dreamers, for instance, can assist the state’s reputation south of the border.

For something like NAFTA, Bours, of the Sonora-Arizona Commission, said Sonoran and Arizonan officials may not be able to directly vote, but they can impress upon federal lawmakers the importance of trade and its financial impacts on states.

It’s up to those working in the field to show why investing in and collaborating with Mexico is wise, he said, and that’s where the local groups choose to focus.

The economic arguments only comprise part of the picture of the Arizona-Sonora relationship, though, O’Neil said. There are so many cultural and personal ties between the states that create a much deeper connection, she said.

“This is the future of your state. What is Arizona going to be 20 or 30 years from now? That will depend on the education and integration of many of these families that can make Arizona a much stronger place,” she said.

Ducey hints slow-down at ports of entry temporary

FILE - This June 1, 2009, file photo, shows vehicles waiting to enter the U.S. through The Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in downtown Nogales, Ariz. For months, the U.S. has barred asylum seekers from approaching official crossings to file a claim. Now, some are rushing the ports by running through vehicle lanes to evade the process used to officially request asylum. That is causing massive delays at crossings in Arizona as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have barricaded lanes used by cars to legally enter the U.S. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, File)
FILE – This June 1, 2009, file photo, shows vehicles waiting to enter the U.S. through The Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in downtown Nogales, Ariz. For months, the U.S. has barred asylum seekers from approaching official crossings to file a claim. Now, some are rushing the ports by running through vehicle lanes to evade the process used to officially request asylum. That is causing massive delays at crossings in Arizona as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have barricaded lanes used by cars to legally enter the U.S. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, File)

Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday brushed aside concerns that a slowdown at border crossings into Arizona engineered by federal officials will affect visitors to Arizona – and supplies for a new auto manufacturing plant here.

“There are real issues at the border, both humanitarian and security-wise,” the governor told Capitol Media Services.

There are five-hour delays in cars getting through checkpoints at Nogales, five times longer than what normally occurs at this time of the year according to statistics by Customs and Border Protection.

He said his team has spoken with CBP.

Doug Ducey
Doug Ducey

“We’re confident that they’re on it,” he said. “They’re doing everything possible to make sure that we’re allowing commerce to flow but also protecting public safety. And we’re going to be supportive of that effort.”

His remarks came on the heels of a formal launching of construction efforts by Lucid Motors to build a $700 million factory to build vehicles.

The governor said Arizona beat out 60 other markets to land the lucrative operation. And Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said part of the decision to land here was the proximity to Mexico and the fact that some of the parts can be built in Sonora.

Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich boasted of more than 100 Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in her state.

That plant won’t roll its first vehicle off the production line until close to a year from now.

In the interim, though, Arizona remains dependent on tourism and shoppers from Mexico to fuel the state’s economy and, in particular, communities in Southern Arizona. Ducey indicated he believes that whatever is happening now at the border is a temporary situation.

“You’re speaking about what’s happening today in Arizona,” he said. “It’s in response to an issue on which we’ve been briefed on and you’ll find out about shortly.”

Ducey would not comment on reports that the decision to close multiple lanes in the border crossings is a deliberate move by CBP to slow the flow of people driving from Mexico and seeking amnesty.

Ducey said the federal agency is acting in the best interests of public safety.

“It has caused delays at our southern border,” Ducey said. And the governor said he is “confident” the issue “will be resolved.”

Pavlovich, who also was at the event here, declined to answer any questions.

The first lane shutdowns started last week as CBP said they were reacting to “a significant increase of asylum seekers using vehicle lanes to circumvent the immigration process.”

“Individuals without proper documentation attempted to evade inspection by running through vehicle lanes disrupting normal operations,” the announcement said. “This resulted in the closure of lanes and increased wait times.”

In a prepared statement last week, Guadalupe Ramirez, director of field operations for CBP, said the failure to comply with proper procedures “overwhelms the ports of entry and jeopardizes the safety and security of our employees and the public.”

“We will not allow ports to be overrun, and are prepared for large groups and caravans attempting to violate our security measures,” Ramirez said.

Ducey signs pipeline pact with New Mexico, Sonora

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, left, discusses the terms of a border pact she signed Wednesday with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich to build a pipeline through Arizona to move New Mexico natural gas to Sonora for eventual shipment to China. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, left, discusses the terms of a border pact she signed Wednesday with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich to build a pipeline through Arizona to move New Mexico natural gas to Sonora for eventual shipment to China. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)

Gov. Doug Ducey on Dec. 19 signed a pact that will enable New Mexico to move its excess natural gas through Arizona to Sonora for eventual sale to Asia.

The deal provides a new market for New Mexico where Gov. Susana Martinez said her state has more natural gas than it can use on its own. And Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich said her state benefits from the jobs that will be created building and operating a plant that will compress the gas into liquified form for transport on ships.

And what does Arizona get — other than a pipeline and other facilities to transport the gas?

In essence, Ducey said, it’s goodwill.

“This is just a way for us to work with our neighbors and promote binational trade,” the governor said, pointing out that Sonora already is Arizona’s largest trading partner. “This is just another way for us to bring that to life and be cooperative in economic development.”

At this point the agreement to cooperate is just that. Actual details, including a timeline and even a path for the pipeline, are not yet on the horizon.

And the agreement itself is valid for four years.

Ducey said, though, it is an important first step.

The governor acknowledged that in prior decades there have been shortages of natural gas which also led to price spikes. There even was a moratorium for a time on installing natural gas in new homes.

But Ducey said he’s not worried that shipping excess natural gas to Asia will result in less for this country when needed.

“Right now we’re in a positive position on energy,” he said. And Ducey said that, to have maximum flexibility, Arizona is “going to continue to have an all-of-the-above philosophy around energy, with a preference for renewables.”

And Martinez, for her part, said there is no basis for such a worry.

“I don’t think anybody understands the abundance of natural gas that exists just in one state, much less the rest of the country,” she said. “I don’t have any concerns that because we find a market that we are not going to be able to have that continuing discovery and production of natural gas.”

According to the agreement, New Mexico is currently producing 3.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily and is on track to reach 4.0 billion by 2022. It also says New Mexico is among the top ten states in proven reserves, with nearly 14.4 trillion cubic feet when measured at the end of 2016.

A lot of what the agreement is about is logistics.

Right now any natural gas New Mexico wants to sell to Asia — and Taiwan in particular — goes through Houston. That means transporting the gas to the Gulf of Mexico where it is liquified to be put into ships which have to go through the Panama Canal, a process that adds time and cost.

Sending the gas by pipeline to Guayamas on the Sea of Cortez — what is called the Gulf of California in the United States — expedites the process.

The latest version of cross-border cooperation comes amid the ongoing rhetoric of the Trump administration decrying what the president has said have been unfair trade deals with our southern neighbors. Ducey said to ignore all that.

“I think there’s a difference between rhetoric and actions,” he said.

“The actions that I’ve seen are the recent signings of the USMCA,” the governor continued, short for the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, “which is basically a new and improved NAFTA,” the now defunct North American Free Trade Agreement.

“I’m hopeful for more of those types of actions,” Ducey continued. “Those are going to be what I’m going to be advocating for out of the governor’s office.”

And if nothing else, he said, Arizona will continue its own separate relationship with Mexico regardless of what is coming out of Washington.

The major beneficiary of the deal could be Sonora which will have to construct a plant to convert the natural gas into liquid form.

“It’s going to be jobs for everyone right there,” Pavlovich said, though she declined to speculate on what that would produce in actual dollars or pesos.

Electric-car maker breaks ground in Casa Grande as competition grows

Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson shows off the model of the $100,000-plus vehicle Monday that the company plans to build in Casa Grande to Gov. Doug Ducey who attended a formal ceremony to launch what company officials say will be a $700 million plant. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)
Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson shows off the model of the $100,000-plus vehicle Monday that the company plans to build in Casa Grande to Gov. Doug Ducey who attended a formal ceremony to launch what company officials say will be a $700 million plant. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)

Three years ago when Lucid Motors announced it would manufacture electric cars in Arizona they were still relatively rare.

Now it seems like just about everyone is building such a car. Even Ford recently announced it is making an all-electric high-performance model of Mustang.

But Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson told Capitol Media Services on Monday he still believes there is a market for the type of vehicle his company intends to start turning out a year from now at a plant it is building on the outskirts of Casa Grande – even one that will cost more than $100,000.

“I think the key is our technology,” he said. Rawlinson said Lucid intends to make every element of the drive train itself.

“Even Porsche doesn’t make its own electric motors,” he said. “They buy them in.”

Hanging in the balance of the company’s success or failure is a $700 million facility that eventually will employ more than 2,000 people. Company officials have estimated the plant will have a $32 billion revenue impact on Pinal County over the next 20 years.

Still, Rawlinson acknowledged, the key is finding that niche.

“When you look at the electric vehicles that are available today, no one is making a pure luxury electric vehicle,” he said.

And what of Tesla? It has three models, topped off by the Model X which has a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $81,000.

“Tesla’s doing a great job,” Rawlinson said. “It’s high tech, it’s disruptive, it’s beautifully engineered.”

What it’s not, he said, is a luxury vehicle.

“Our car is pure luxury, and we’re going after that luxury space which is dominated worldwide by Mercedes Benz, Audi and BMW with their luxury offerings,” Rawlinson said. “And none of those is available as an electric vehicle.”

And that, he said, justifies a price tag that will be “typically north of $100,000.”

Rawlinson said he is confident there will be buyers, estimating Lucid can turn out about 15,000 in 2021 in its first full year of operation “and ramp it up progressively from there on.”

“I very much believe in baby steps, making the quality right, making the most beguiling, attractive product,” he said. “And for that, there’s a huge international market.”

He estimates that market at $100 billion a year.

“And that is white space because there’s no electric vehicle in that space,” Rawlinson said.

Lucid’s efforts had been more or less stalled since the high-profile announcement by Gov. Doug Ducey and Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich in 2016 in front of the Arizona State Capitol.

All that changed, however, with the announcement last year by the Saudi Arabia sovereign wealth fund it was putting $1 billion into the company.

Rawlinson said Monday that provides the financing needed to finish the plant and start manufacturing vehicles. But he’s still looking for other cash.

“We have a golden opportunity to accelerate the path of this company with future models before the industry really wakes up and we do see a lot of competitor EVs coming in a few years’ time,” Rawlinson explained.

State and local governments also are contributing to getting the operation started.

The company could qualify for more than $45 million in state incentives, including tax credits, which are tied to milestones like how many people are hired.

Pinal County also purchased 500 acres of land that is being leased and eventually will be sold to Lucid.

Sonora governor decries talk of tariffs, border closures

Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich discusses the impact of talk of tariffs and border closures have on the area economy Friday with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey at the annual meeting of the Arizona-Mexico Commission. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)
Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich discusses the impact of talk of tariffs and border closures have on the area economy June 28, 2019, with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey at the annual meeting of the Arizona-Mexico Commission. (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer)

Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich warned Friday that the talk about tariffs and border closures coming from Washington is endangering the economy of both her state and Arizona.

Speaking at the annual Arizona-Mexico Commission, Pavlovich said much of the rhetoric surrounds the issue of security and public safety in the border area between the two countries. But she said that there’s a downside when it starts resulting in threats.

“When you do that you create an uncertainty among the society and among business people that generate richness and generate money and improve the economy,” she said. In fact, Pavlovich said that such talk can be counter productive to the goal of stemming migration.

“You are attracting what you don’t want,” the Sonora governor said, causing more desperate people to flee their countries.

Her comments come on the heels of President Trump saying he would close the border unless Mexico did more to stem the flow of migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala before backing down. That scenario was repeated more recently with a vow by Trump, which he has since rescinded, to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on imports from Mexico.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, for his part, sought to downplay those threats.

“There are no tariffs,” he told commission members. “There has been no border closure.”

But Pavlovich, in Phoenix as part of the commission’s role in promoting business in both border states, said those threats by themselves undermine the business environment of both states.

“If you tell everybody that something is going to happen that is going to affect the economy of the country, of both countries, it becomes something like a fear where they don’t want to make more business, they don’t want to invest more,” she explained later to Capitol Media Services. “They don’t want to create more jobs because they expect what is going to happen.”

And that, in turn, creates its own migrant flow, saying such fears result in people fleeing where they live “because they don’t know whether they’re going to have a job.”

“Nobody leaves the country because they want,” Pavlovich said. “They leave the country because they don’t have opportunities.”

The whole question of those threats from the Trump administration has put Ducey in a tough position.

Ducey repeated Friday that he opposes tariffs and that he’s a supporter of free trade. In fact, Ducey said he sees tariffs as taxes, a description that the president has dismissed.

Yet when Trump threatened to impose tariffs earlier this year the Arizona governor said he would back the president, saying he finds public safety to be more important than any economic hit.

Ducey said, though, those threats by the Trump administration had the desired results.

“It was to accomplish action on the part of our Congress,” he said, specifically mentioning the approval this week of the $4.6 billion border aid package. And then there were agreements that the Trump administration announced of Mexico agreeing to do more to stem the flow of migrants.

“Mexico acted first, so the border did not close,” Ducey said. “The tariffs did not go into place.”

One issue on which the governors appear to disagree is the question of what steps Mexico should take to keep migrants from getting into that country.

“I know that there’s a lot of discussion around the United States southern border,” he said. “We ought to have an equal focus on Mexico’s southern border.”

Pavlovich, however, said she sees the issue through a different lens, being the fourth generation of migrants to Mexico from Europe. She said there needs to be respect for the laws.

“But more than anything, respect for human rights,” Pavlovich said.

“Every person has a right to go in search of their happiness,” she said. “Perhaps I am seeing it because I am closer to the migrant.”

Her great grandparents, Pavlovich said, came to work and created many jobs.

“So the fourth generation of these people right now is the governor, the first female governor of Sonora,” she said. “So I do believe a great deal in the ability of people to move.”

What people also are entitled to, Pavlovich, is “a life with dignity,” with governments in both countries having a responsibility to create economic opportunities.

The Sonora governor made the same points in her comments to the commission.

“The most important thing for us is people,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter where they come from,” Pavlovich said. “It doesn’t matter where they go.”

Ducey said there are reasons that, despite the rhetoric out of Washington, that people should be confident in investing in the region, including in businesses that operate on both sides of the border. The key, he said, is the relationship he has with Pavlovich.

“It’s not just a relationship that’s grown into a warm friendship,” Ducey said. “It’s also a business relationship that has brought results to both of our states.”

A prime example, he said, is Lucid Motors which chose to set up shop in Pinal County and get some of the parts for the electric cars they intend to build there from Mexico. Ducey said the company looked at 60 different markets in 13 states “and chose Arizona because of the relationship that we have.”

Sonora governor speaks out against Trump’s tariff threat

Gov. Claudia Pavlovich, Sonora, Mexico, and Gov. Doug Ducey, talk after a press conference Nov. 29 to announce Lucid Motors has agreed to open a plant in Casa Grande.
Gov. Claudia Pavlovich, Sonora, Mexico, and Gov. Doug Ducey, talk after a press conference Nov. 29, 2016, to announce Lucid Motors has agreed to open a plant in Casa Grande.

Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich is parting ways with her Arizona counterpart over the controversial tariffs on imports from Mexico that President Donald Trump is threatening to impose this coming week.

In a Twitter post, the Sonora governor made it clear she is on the side of her president, Andres Lopez Obrador, who said in his own public posting to Trump that “you can’t solve social problems with taxes or coercive measures.” And the Sonora governor said she fears the economic damage that would result.

“There are a lot of national interests, investment, employment that are in play, the interests of both countries,” Pavlovich said.

“Mexico is the principal business partner of the United States,” she continued, as if addressing U.S. officials. “You know this very well.”

And Pavlovich said there is a clear responsibility of elected officials on both sides of the border to pursue “dialog and the agreement that benefit our citizens.”

This is more than an academic issue for Pavlovich.

In an interview in 2016 with Capitol Media Services, a year after she took office, she said she is trying to build a “mega-region” with Arizona designed to attract companies interested in doing business on both sides of the border. Pavlovich said that means more trade, more tourism and more emphasis on convincing businesses that the border is not a barrier but instead simply separates two halves of a whole.

That would appear to conflict with Trump’s “America First” agenda.

More specifically, Pavlovich came to Phoenix later in 2016 to help Ducey announce that Lucid Motors intends to build an electric car manufacturing plant in Casa Grande.

In speeches that day, the two governors stressed that this would be a cross-border operation, with many of the parts and supplies made in Sonora and shipped to the United States. A tariff would raise costs and threaten the viability of such a plan.

A Lucid spokeswoman said late Wednesday her company has no comment at this time about the tariffs and how they might affect the planned operations.

At issue is Trump’s threat to impose a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning Monday unless that country takes certain actions − he did not specify what − to stem the flow of refugees from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala who are fleeing their home countries and traveling through Mexico to show up at the U.S. border to seek asylum.

Trump has vowed to ratchet up those tariffs to as much as 25 percent by October if his administration is not satisfied with Mexican response.

Ducey, for his part, is siding with the president, saying earlier this week that he values “public safety” over commerce.

On Wednesday, he provided no direct response to Pavlovich’s Twitter post. Instead, press aide Patrick Ptak said his boss “values Arizona’s trade relationship with Mexico and the partnership he’s forged with Gov. Pavlovich.”

Ptak also said that Ducey will continue to prioritize trade to bring opportunity Arizonans “while protecting public safety as we always have.”

But in backing Trump, the Arizona governor is finding himself increasingly isolated from other border governors, including on this side of the line.

Michelle Lujan Grisham, governor of New Mexico, warned that the proposed tariffs have the “potential to be economically catastrophic” for her state. Grisham, a Democrat, said even a 5 percent tariff could threaten tens of thousands of jobs.

Republican Greg Abbott of Texas also has lined up against the president.

“I’ve previously stated my opposition to tariffs due to the harm it would inflict on the Texas economy,” Abbott said in a statement released last week. “I remain opposed today.”

Until now Ducey has tried to separate domestic policy as espoused by Trump from his relationship with Pavlovich.

Last year Ducey signed a pact that will enable New Mexico to move its excess natural gas through Arizona to Sonora for eventual sale to Asia. That came amid escalating rhetoric from the Trump administration decrying what the president said have been unfair trade deals with Mexico.

Ducey said at the time to ignore all that.]

“I think there’s a difference between rhetoric and actions,” the Arizona governor said.

That, however, was before the rhetoric about border security became action in the form of the threatened tariffs.

The issue of Trump came up even earlier in conversations between Ducey and Pavlovich, before the 2016 presidential election.

As a candidate, Trump called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and promised to build a wall along the border “and make Mexico pay for it.”

Pavlovich told Capitol Media Services at the time she was not blind or deaf to those statements by candidate Trump, insisting that “Gov. Ducey and myself will overcome all the obstacles that we see in front of us.”

Ducey, in his own comments to Capitol Media Services, said there were “political realities” that would have to be dealt with, including the possibility that Trump would be elected. The trick Ducey said, was not letting those comments and the political race get in the way.

“If we focus on what the goal is, what are the objectives in terms of growing our economy, having safer communities, improving tourism and trade, we can work around those,” he said.