Pressure Increases: Mexican Auto Sales Plummet Under NAFTA Agreement Cloud

The quid pro quo is simple. Auto manufacturing stays in Mexico under NAFTA, but they agree to strict immigration reforms and give us carte blanche to use our military against the drug cartel. Mexico has no cards to play. They need us and it's time they got with the program.

Mexico has many cards to play. Just ask the automakers or the farming industry. Neither Mexico or Canada are caving to Trump's moronic demands. And I highly doubt the US will drop out of NAFTA.

Mexico has no cards to play. They are not a good neighbor. In fact, quite the contrary. If they don't play with us, we can play elsewhere instead. The only hope Mexico has is to get cozy with the USA. The USA most decidedly could back out of NAFTA and cut a deal with Korea and China. Canada and Mexico are just the flies buzzing around Uncle Sam's head.

@MD nation to nation negotiations at the highest levels does not work that way. But it is a good sound bite. NAFTA will remain with some modernization tweaks at the edges. The agreement is far too important to US corporations (GOP donors) to see it disappear. None of these leaders would trust the present occupant of the WH to cut separate bilateral deals as they take years to do. Both Houses will also support the agreement as it is what their donors want. It has been good for all 3 nations and should continue until we have a free trade zone that stretches from Argentina to Alaska.

@canadian nation-to-nation negotiations don't work that way when socialists are at the helm...and socialists have failed us. Capitalists on the other hand look at the bottom line and doe what is necessary. Canada gives the USA literally nothing that we need.

@MD- The facts would state otherwise. The USA is our biggest trading partner (customer). Vehicles, Machinery, Electrical Machinery, Mineral Fuels, Plastics + Agricultural products are Canada's biggest exports to the USA. A total of $278B USD of goods flowed from Canada to the USA in 2016. Canada is the USA's 3rd largest supplier of goods overall. So yes we are important to the US economy and provide it with lots of stuff it needs. I would add to that list, Poutine, Hockey Players and Tim Horton's Coffee. We are also the largest single market for exported goods from the USA and imported $266B USD from the USA in 2016. So as you can see it is very much a 2-way street. When you add the integration of supply chains and manufacturing plants, NAFTA is definitely here to stay.

@canadian You missed the point entirely. Typical of Liberals who cannot be bothered to hear any perspective other than their own. My point had NOTHING to do with trade volume. Not one little bit.

Matt wins again! MAGA!!!!

What I got from reading the article was that the political uncertainty in Mexico and rising inflation are the main culprits. Aside from that I really don't care what is happening in Mexico. The President was elected to represent the people of the USA and their interests for the future. So wether Mexico is suffering or not is not our citizens problem, it is the problem of the Mexican government to handle with their citizens. The problem of manufacturing leaving the US for decades is an issue for our President to deal with so that our citizens have future jobs and prosperity. Our President is doing what many before him have neglected to do because they were receiving back door deals from big business so that the same big businesses could find cheaper labour forces to boost profit. Business will always try to find the least expensive manufacturing cost which they have the right to do. Our government has no right to tell big business how they can operate, which in the last successive governments (both Dem. and Rep.), the over reach of government was doing exactly this. What our government has the right to do is make incentives to utilize our workforce and to manufacture in the USA and that is what Trump is doing. Tariffs are nothing more that incentives and it is to the discretion of the big business as to wether they would like to incur those costs or wether it is now more beneficial to manufacture elsewhere while receiving incentives(i.e. tax incentives). That is how a non-socialist thinking government works, by offering incentives rather than overreaching for power. Mexicain citizens will now be on the receiving end of which way its political regime sides.

Well said

+2