Chinese exports and investment in Mexico are quickly rising. The Trump team fears its neighbor could be used as a backdoor to the U.S. market.

China has strengthened trade with Latin America at the expense of the U.S. But Donald Trump, who threatens to raise tariffs on Mexico, could upend those ties.

Mexico is planning to establish a “task force” to involve US companies in the process of reducing imports from China, the country’s economy minister told a group of auto suppliers at a private meeting Friday in Detroit.

Mexico’s government on Monday launched a plan to shrink its yawning trade deficit with China and attract investment, in an olive branch to Donald Trump’s incoming US administration.

Mexico, currently the No. 12 economy according to World Bank data, aims to crack the Top 10 by 2030, Sheinbaum said. The nation will do so by boosting local manufacturing and swapping out imports, creating manufacturing jobs and cutting through red tape to attract investments in the country, Sheinbaum said.

Chinese companies looked to Mexico more than most. Their investment in the country has surged. Mr Trump (who has already threatened to apply a tariff of 25% to Mexican imports “on day one” unless it stops migrants and drugs from illegally crossing the border) believes those firms are using Mexico as a tariff-free gateway to the United States.

He’s threatening to do it again. Round One inadvertently pushed China and Mexico closer together on trade and foreign investment, as China sought new trade partners and a detour for its exports ...

He's threatening to do it again. Round One inadvertently pushed China and Mexico closer together on trade and foreign investment, as China sought new trade partners and a detour for its exports to ...

Shoppers walk with their purchases near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro, Calif., on Nov. 26, 2024. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened China, Canada and Mexico with punitive tariffs ...

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a plan to reduce the country’s imports from China in a bid to support local industry and align herself with the US and Canada as a trade partners.

Iowa, U.S. farmers lost billions of dollars in exports in Trump's last trade war. Another battle 'couldn't come at a worse time,' an Iowa farmer says.