Mexico scrambles to reassure Chinese investors amid Donald Trump’s tariff threats

Mexican envoys are rushing to reassure Chinese companies that they will remain welcome to invest in Mexico, as the country faces growing pressure to clamp down on Chinese-funded factories.

Chinese businesses in Mexico should remain calm and “wait” to see what happens after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office, said Santiago Toledo, a commercial counsellor at the Mexican embassy in China, on Wednesday.

While acknowledging the future of North America’s trading relations remains uncertain, Toledo stressed that any Chinese company setting up a factory in Mexico is treated as a local manufacturer under existing laws.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s from Japan, from Germany, from China, it becomes a Mexican company, and it becomes part of the regional supply chain,” said Toledo, who was speaking on the sidelines of China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing.

The Latin American nation is a popular choice thanks to its proximity to the US and its participation in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – which guarantees as long as a certain percentage of content is made locally in North America, products can enter the US market free of taxes.