Tariff Scares, and International Economics – What We Can Learn From AVIXA (and Mexico)

By David Keene

June 1, 2026 – Something you may not expect, got me rethinking the tariff debates recently. And it’s about Mexico. And AVIXA. And InfoComm(s).

As we head to InfoComm 2026 in Vegas, it’s hard not to flash back to spring 2025, when tariff turmoil was roiling not just our pro AV industry but all industries everywhere. It’s hard to overstate the anxiety (if not panic) of those months, more for the uncertainty and volatility of trade dynamics as for any given tariff rate on any given product. Like all trade/tariff salvos, these tariffs caused not just the immediate obvious effect, but many ripples not the least of which were more tariffs launched by a multitude of countries to compensate, negotiate, retaliate.

It seems like ages ago, but it was just 12 months ago that we were all trying to get our heads around a new landscape of more/higher tariffs. It was easy to get in the weeds and spin various predictions. Perhaps all of the big AV display manufacturers would be swimming in the same waters, with no single one of them gaining any advantage? We waited to see what new price elasticity of demand curves would look like for product categories as a whole, if all product prices went up in tandem regardless of the manufacturer. It even crossed my mind that displays, sold at very low margin for so many years in our industry, could weather the storm and end up being repriced upward in ways that might benefit the industry in the longer term. (Economics 101: prices are “sticky” upward.) Wishful thinking no doubt – and last year, I made it clear that I did not want anyone in our industry to have to test that textbook math.

Did all more most of that anxiety go away Feb. 20 of this year, when the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the “Liberation Day” tariffs was handed down? Not exactly, as a new 15% blanket tariff was launched by the president. There was more roller coaster to come, with many ups and downs for importers, exporters, consumers and B2B markets. And although things have settled down quite a bit, we all had to re-learn that, at the end of the day, there is always opportunity in a changing landscape.

What got me rethinking the tariff debates now, as we head again to InfoComm Las Vegas, is indeed about Mexico. Specifically, what I’ve been hearing about the upcoming InfoComm America Latina, to be held in Mexico City October 21-23, 2026.

We know from AVIXA that the inaugural 2025 event was a great success, with almost 10,000 registrants. “We achieved a complete sell-out in this first edition and exceeded our goals in all aspects: space, participation, and promotion. We are very satisfied with the incredible market response—just as we expected,” said Rodrigo Casassus Coke, CTS, Senior Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at AVIXA. And he added, “we have great news: next year’s edition is already scheduled. InfoComm América Latina will take place from Wednesday, October 21, to Friday, October 23, 2026. We’ll return to the WTC and expand the exhibition space by 50%.”

What does an InfoComm held in Mexico City have to do with tariffs? A lot, because it reminds us that we need to get back to the fundamentals of international economics – starting with the places and the economies we know best.

Let’s circle back a few years – and look at the dynamics of North America.

It’s ironic that NAFTA was initially crafted to create a huge, synergistic free trade union for all of North America/Mexico, but many events have altered the landscape. Since its launch in the 1990’s the entry of China into the WTO and the subsequent huge rise in Chinese and other Asian manufacturers and their native governmental support caused the equation to change – and much of that change was been good for our industry. But the original NAFTA math was pushed sideways (long before the tariffs and other political currents were facing now). Unfortunate that NAFTA did not go as planned, but we should view that as opportunity to put aside economic theory and just look at places we know, companies we know, and people that have demonstrated industry leadership.

Mexico is such a vibrant manufacturing center today, as AVIXA knows well. What most Americans don’t realize that Mexico has many factories at higher efficiency levels than most competing countries (including many U.S. ones) and stellar R&D and workforces for everything from cars to LCD and LED screens and more. Having lived in Mexico, I’ve toured some of these factories, and it’s so clear these are not factories with just “sufficient” capabilities, leveraging lower wages. They’re amazing technology centers in the very top tier of advanced manufacturing worldwide, period. So it’s a shame that politics has further eroded the original intent of NAFTA, which held so much promise for our industry and many others. Let’s just hope enough technology companies and end users and their representatives will steer the present administration, and future ones, to thoughtful, purposeful policy approaches – and that should include harnessing the combined talent and resources that the U.S., Mexico, and Canada can offer in abundance, working together. AVIXA has shown how to do that – and we should all take inspiration from them. I will, as I’m looking forward to seeing all my AV friends from Mexico at InfoComm in Vegas in two weeks.