Mexico has eclipsed China to become the United States’ leading trade ally, with goods worth $263 billion exchanged between the two nations in the initial four months of this year, as reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Trade with Mexico accounted for 15.4% of the US’s imports and exports, marginally ahead of America’s trade with Canada and China, which stood at 15.2% and 12% respectively.
Dallas Bank analysts believe this shift began with former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on certain Chinese goods and the signing of the US-Canada-Mexico trade agreement, a subtle update to the nearly three-decade-old NAFTA accord.
This evolution also indicates a swift transition in practices where nations source supply chains for essential goods from countries both physically and politically closer to them.
“It’s not about deglobalisation. It’s the next phase of globalisation that’s centred on regional networks,” remarked Michael Burns of Murray Hill Group, an investment firm specialising in supply chains.