Mexico’s the new China
The U.S.-Mexico trade relationship has always been significant—but in recent years it’s gotten more enormous still. The United States’ trade with Mexico has jumped 30 percent since 2010 to over half a trillion dollars annually. Last year broke records: American foreign direct investment in its southern neighbor hit an all-time high of $35 billion, and Mexico captured its largest-ever share of American imports (some 14 percent). For America, there is a knock-on benefit to a manufacturing shift from China to Mexico: About 40 percent of the parts in Mexican imports are made in the United States, compared to just 4 percent for imports from China.
(IMF, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York Times)
