Deepening feud pushes US and Mexico toward damaging trade war

© Americanspirit

Yesterday marked the beginning of what could be a drawn-out spat between the US and Mexico, with cancelled meetings and annoyed tweets. Bloomberg looks at the feud, and argues that a trade war would be damaging on both sides of the border. Interestingly, though, it also notes that “Trump has a point”, as the US trade deficit with Mexico represents 12% of the total imbalance. Nevertheless, the interdependence of manufacturing supply chains, as well as the fact that some 5m US jobs depend on trade with Mexico, means a trade spat could hurt those in Trump’s rust belt heartland.