From the Editorial Staff
The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, July 18, 2024, p. 22
Former US President Donald Trump believes that Mexico is allowing Chinese investment in the automotive sector, which threatens jobs in the United States.
In an interview with Business Week magazine, which was reported by the newspaper El País, the tycoon who will accept his nomination as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate today, accused the Chinese automotive industry of installing manufacturing and assembly plants in Mexico to sell vehicles in the United States, with the benefit of paying less taxes due to the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
Bad things are happening. Something really bad is happening over there in Mexico. China is building huge car plants. They are going to put the UAW out of business. They are building them in Mexico to make cars and then sell them in the United States. What do we gain from this?asked.
El País reported that the world’s largest electric vehicle producer, China’s BYD, has said it is in talks with various Mexican states in search of a good location for its new factory. BYD expects its investment to generate 10,000 jobs.
This has angered US lawmakers and politicians, who have complained that China is using Mexico as a kind of back door to the US market.
In Mexico there is only one car factory of a Chinese brand, which is small and owned by Mexican capital, El País reported without specifying the name of that factory.
Trump also spoke more generally about the auto industry, suggesting that under the Biden administration, companies have opted to go to Mexico under nearshoring rather than move to the United States, pay more taxes and create more jobs.
That wasn’t going to happen in my time, you know why? Because I stopped all that, everybody was moving to Mexico. They were building in Mexico, they didn’t have taxes to pay and they were selling them in the United States. There wouldn’t even have been an automobile industry if I hadn’t stopped that.he assured.
