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The Mexicans are the real losers of the US election.
Mexican companies and workers have been one of the greatest beneficiaries of the North American Free Trade Agreement and globalization. The country in nominal terms is the 15th largest economy ($1.1 trillion USD) and 11th ($2.3 trillion) when measured by purchasing power parity globally. It climbed out its nearly frozen economy and became a major exporter of consumer electronics, OEM manufacturing, and vehicle production.
Donald Trump's singling out of Mexico and globalization as the source of the collapse of US manufacturing seems inspired by Ross Perot's 1992 statement that trade agreements were sending jobs overseas and that an agreement with Mexico was a "giant sucking sound [of US jobs] going south".
As a good friend, the Canadian Government is already looking at throwing Mexico under the bus as part of preliminary discussions with the new US Government to set up a bilateral trading agreement to replace NAFTA. Prime Minister Trudeau is scheduled to meet Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Calgary on January 24th as part of efforts by the Trump administration to reach out to Ottawa.
Meanwhile, President Henrique Pena Nieto faces difficult questions at home on a projected slow down to the Mexican economy and very large uncertainty linked to its primary export market the US.
If indeed NAFTA collapses into a bilateral Canadian-US agreement the real question is what happens to Mexico? The country has sought to expand trade in recent years and signed free trade agreements with 44 countries such as the EU, Israel, EFTA, Japan and various other countries. This has not brought the necessary gains in export markets as still nearly 80 percent of exports went to the US in 2013.
In other words, Trump's got Mexico by the pussy.
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