Special Report: America first: the challenge for Mexico (ISSN 17414474)

The two countries share a common border of 2,000 miles (about 3,200km). During the last century economic relations between Mexico and the US have become progressively closer. The border region (made up of ten US and Mexican states) now has a population of nearly 100m: in GDP terms alone it can be considered to be the world’s fourth-largest economy. Two-way trade is running at around US$1.4bn a day. Legal daily border crossings run into the hundreds of thousands. There are over 12m Mexicans living in the United States, and one million US citizens living in Mexico. Over 20m US citizens visit Mexico every year as tourists. The US is Mexico’s largest trading partner, far outstripping all other contenders. Mexico is the United States’ second-largest export market (after Canada) and it third-largest trading partner (after Canada and China). The accumulated value of investment in Mexico by US companies is US$101bn, while Mexican companies have around US$17.6bn invested in the US. Mexicans living in the US send home over US$20bn each year in remittances to friends and family.