Is Mexico China’s Backdoor Into The US?

Overview

Mexico is seeing a manufacturing boom amid US-China trade tensions. More American companies are outsourcing factory operations to Mexico - with, among other reasons, the need to de-risk supply chains. But more Chinese corporations are also investing billions in Mexico as a production base to get closer to regional consumers - a practice called nearshoring - and to get around US tariffs imposed on Chinese exports since the 2018 Trump era. Since 2023, China has overtaken the US as Latin America’s top trading partner.