Apr 1, 2019, 01:01pm

Ten U.S. Exports And Imports That Would Be Hurt If Trump Closes Mexico Border

Ken Roberts Contributor


Almost 90 percent of U.S. tomato imports come from Mexico.
Photo: Bloomberg © 2018 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP


If President Trump follows through on his threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border "this week," it would effect everyday things like imported tomatoes, 87% of which come from Mexico, as well as an important market for U.S. pork exports, 22% of which go to Mexico.

It would also affect the budgets of border crossings stretching from Brownsville on the east coast of Texas to Otay Mesa, south of San Diego in California.

Nowhere would that impact be felt more profoundly than in Laredo, Texas. It is the "port" that handles more U.S. exports than any of the 450-plus airports, seaports and border crossings in the nation and more total trade, including imports, than all but the Port of Los Angeles.

In 2018, almost $235 billion in exports and imports crossed there, or 37% of the U.S. total with Mexico.

While I'm no native, I know Laredo and the Texas border a little. My company, WorldCity, has been producing an annual Laredo TradeNumbers publication for more than a decade, I visit there almost every year, and I regularly speak at the annual Laredo Manufacturers' Symposium.

A complete closure would also affect:

  • El Paso, Texas, the nation's 14th-busiest port;
  • Otay Mesa, the 27th;
  • Pharr, Texas, the 29th, where we also produce an annual TradeNumbers publication;
  • Eagle Pass, Texas, No. 31, where we are launching an Eagle Pass TradeNumbers product this year;
  • Santa Teresa, N.M., No. 37;
  • Nogales, Ariz., No 41;
  • Brownsville, No. 47;
  • And a number of other border crossings.


Sixteen percent of all U.S. exports go to Mexico, second only to Canada, and 14% of U.S. imports, third behind China and Canada, are from there.

But unlike trade with most nations, trade between Mexico and the United States almost always involves either a truck or a train.

When looking at U.S. trade by air, Mexico accounted for just 1.5% in 2018. By ocean, it accounted for 7%.

Why threaten to close the border? President Trump is increasingly frustrated at his inability to construct a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border, as promised when he was a candidate, and, now, at the number of Central Americans trying to enter the United States by crossing over the U.S.-Mexico border.

Such a move, to close the border, would have a dramatic impact on the automotive and agricultural sectors, but affect others as well. It would upset intricate supply chains. It would affect the local economies, since local governments collect tolls when trucks exit the United States, and it would affect local businesses, from restaurants to hotels that serve the logistics community.

It is not unreasonable to call a number of these communities, particularly the smaller ones, cities built by NAFTA, the treaty that could someday be usurped by the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, currently bottled up in the Democractic-led U.S. House of Representatives.

Here are a few of the leading U.S. exports, the overall value in 2018, the percentage bound for Mexico via border crossing, or almost exclusively that way, and Mexico's rank among the rest of the world's nations:

Product U.S. total % to Mexico Mexico rank
Motor vehicle parts $3.2 billion 37% First
Engine parts $6.31 billion 35% First
Soybeans $17.2 billion 10% Second
Pork $4.58 billion 22% Second
Fresh beef $3.39 billion 20% Second

Here are a few of the leading U.S. imports from Mexico, in a similar format as for the exports:

Product U.S. total % from Mexico Mexico rank
Motor vehicles $174.95 billion 20% Fourth
Motor vehicle parts $65.06 billion 35% First
TVs, computer monitors 24.3 billion 37% Second
Tomatoes $2.18 billion 87% First
Strawberries, blueberries, etc. $2.78 billion 65% First

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