A couple of weeks ago President Trump made the remark while in the Oval Office that "security is more important to me than trade" (Tankersely ) while discussing closing down all ports of entry from the southern border as a way to defend the nation from the sudden influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border. He later then reconfirms his statement and recognizing the major problem with his new plan. The United States economy. If we were to close off all trade with the nation of Mexico it would have a major negative effect on our economies and possible the worlds economy as well.
The United States and Mexico have a very close relationship when it comes the the importation and exportation of goods between one another. Mexico is the United States third largest trading partner in the world. So cutting off one of our major trading sources would impact our economy in an extreme negatively way. We import about two hundred and nineteen billion dollars in good alone from the nation of Mexico. That is alone from vehicles, electrical machinery, regular machinery, agricultural products, fossil fuels and optical and medical instruments. Not only are those are main imports but they are also our man imports! As stated in the article "American automakers and farmers, as well as other industries depend .. on Mexico for sales and goods" (Tankersely).
Many American politicians and economists disagree with the option and threat President Trump continues to use to pressure Mexico to enforce immigration control in their nation. Republican Senator of Kentucky spoke out against his fellow party member and superior about the effects the potential threat carries. Stating "Closing down the border would have a potentially catastrophic impact on our country" and "I would hope that we would not be doing that sort of thing" (Tankersely). Even fellow party members that almost always support their party members are having trouble amusing the thought of steering our fragile economy into the way of almost certain collapse. Even Mark Zandi a chief economist from Moody's Analytics stated "a full shut down of the United State - Mexican border of more than a several weeks would be the fodder for recessions in both Mexico and the United States" (Tankersely).
Even president Trump's economic advising team have spoken to him about the dangers of shutting down the border and cutting off trade with Mexico. They have began looking for different options to deal with the lack of effort from Mexico with help reforming immigration with out putting our own economy in a possible depression. However there is no legitimate way to stop the spread of damage from even a partial shutdown of the United States and Mexican border. The reason is because simply the border produces too much money for our economy to just shut it down even for a little while . The sourthern border we share with Mexico is vital our economy, it produces "Nearly $1.7 billion of goods and services flow across the border daily" (Tankersely).
See our President thinks if he bullies Mexico with the threat of what I would call economic warfare to produce results with immigration reform within Mexico he should know he is dead wrong. If he were to pull this threat off not only would Mexico be in economic despair but we would be also. Making us vulnerable to terrorists attacks and uncontrollable immigration and a potential spike in crime through out our nation. If he plans to give a ultimatum, I suggest he finds one where we the American people, come out victorious and not digging our own grave with those we tried to impose our will over.
References:
Trump Vows to Close Border, Even if It Hurts the Economy By: Jim Tankersely
What does the U.S. import from Mexico? A whole lot By: Irna Ivanova