A good American job should let a person earn a decent living, raise a family, and build a future in the community they call home.
For generations, making beer has been that kind of job. So has growing the grain and hops that go into it.
But today, American brewery workers and farmers are competing against a system that makes it cheaper to brew beer south of the border than here at home. American workers deserve a fair shot. That’s why I support targeted tariffs on beer brewed in Mexico.
I have spent three decades in public service, from mayor of a small Hudson River village to county executive, Congress, and the Federal Transit Administration. When I was nominated to lead the FTA, the Teamsters, the Transport Workers Union, and the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department backed me. The Teamsters also represent many of the people who brew, package, and ship American beer.
The brewing industry still supports thousands of good union jobs across America. The Teamsters have estimated that roughly 80% of beer-industry workers are unionized. Those jobs come with wages, healthcare and retirement benefits, and we should want more of them.
Yet American brewing is losing ground. Mexican beer production has grown 85% since 2014, and about 80% of Mexico’s beer exports come to the United States.
American breweries, meanwhile, were running at 65% of capacity in 2023, down from 82% a decade earlier. Mexican brewers plan to add 19 to 23 million hectoliters of capacity over the next five years. Idle capacity means idle workers, and idle breweries can’t afford to stay open.
What’s driving that shift south of the border?
Mexico has created a system that lets beer made at a fraction of the labor cost compete head-to-head with beer made here by American workers.
According to Mexican government data, brewery workers in Mexico earn roughly $3,700 a year, while unionized American brewery workers earn more than $77,000. Add the investment incentives and export-focused policies Mexico uses to attract American companies to build breweries south of the border, and American brewers face a built-in disadvantage.
Farmers have a stake in this as well. New York has 30,650 farms, and 98% are family-owned. In the five years before the last USDA census, we lost 364,000 acres of farmland, with more being lost every year.
U.S. brewers purchase more than $1 billion in agricultural inputs from American farmers annually. That purchasing power supports farm income, rural jobs, and communities across New York and well beyond.
Breweries that buy New York grain and hops are customers our farms cannot afford to lose. The future of American brewing is tied directly to the future of our farmers.
In New York State, unionized breweries have supported communities for generations, particularly in Central New York. These are the same areas that have struggled with economic development due to the loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign companies.
During my time in Congress, I was one of the most bipartisan members, focused on delivering results for the people I represented. It didn’t matter which party an idea came from. If it helped New Yorkers, I was willing to work to get it done.
We should approach tariffs on Mexican beer with that same mindset. Rebuilding American manufacturing starts with defending the good jobs we still have. Protecting American brewers, their workers, and the farmers who supply them is a good place to start.
President Donald Trump has made American workers the priority in trade policy, and he deserves credit for it.
TRUMP IS FIGHTING CANADA ON TRADE — SO WHY ARE WE LETTING IT ROB OUR WATERS?
Look at what happened after his administration put a 50% tariff on Canadian beer. Sapporo announced it would move production from Canada to the U.S.
When the rules encourage companies to hire American workers, those companies start looking for a place to build here. We should take the same approach to Mexican beer and put more Americans to work.
Marc Molinaro is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving the people of New York’s 19th congressional district. He also served as President Donald Trump’s Administrator of the Federal Transit Admininstration.