US – A border shutdown such as the one U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose could seriously affect trade between Mexico and the United States, greatly harming Mexico’s maquila industry, upon which more than 3 million jobs depend, as well as US$195 billion in annual exports.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, bilateral trade amounts to US$1.7 billion per day.
Furthermore, the food sector would also be at risk of losing US$127 million a day in avocado, tomato, beer, corn, and meat exports, according to experts.
Commercial relations between Mexico and the United States showed a trade value of US$527 billion in 2018, out of which US$328 billion resulted from Mexican exports while imports rose to nearly US$199 billion, according to the Ministry of Economy.
Luis Aguirre, president of Consejo Nacional de la Industria Maquiladora y Manufacturera de Exportación (index), Jorge Torres, president of American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico and Ignacio Martinez, coordinator of the Commerce, Economy, and Business Laboratory at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) expressed their concern about U.S. President Donald Trump´s threat to close the border with Mexico, since numerous companies depends largely on trade with the United States.
Mexican exporters said that they this week they were looking into sending their goods to the United States by air freight to avoid a five-mile-long line of trucks at the border caused by the Trump administration moving federal agents away from customs checks to immigration duties.
Source: El Universal