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The U. S. bought more goods from Mexico than China in 2023 for the first time in 20 years, demonstrating the magnitude of the adjustments in global industry patterns.
By Ana Swanson and Simón Romero
Ana Swanson reported from Washington and Seoul, and Simon Romero from Mexico City.
In the depths of the pandemic, as global supply chains buckled and the cost of shipping a container from China soared nearly twentyfold, Marco Villarreal spied an opportunity.
In 2021, Mr. Villarreal resigned as Caterpillar’s director general in Mexico and began nurturing ties with companies looking to shift manufacturing from China to Mexico. He found a client in Hisun, a Chinese producer of all-terrain vehicles, which hired Mr. Villarreal to establish a $152 million manufacturing site in Saltillo, an industrial hub in northern Mexico.
Villarreal said that foreign companies, especially those selling in North America, see Mexico as a viable option over China for several reasons, adding to latent industrial tensions between the United States and China.
“The stars are aligning for Mexico,” he said.
New insights released on Wednesday showed Mexico overtook China for the first time in 20 years as the most sensible source of official U. S. imports, a significant shift that highlights how rising tensions between Washington and Beijing are changing industrial flows.
The U. S. industry’s deficit with China narrowed last year, and imports of U. S. products fell 20% to $427. 2 billion, according to the data. Consumers and businesses have turned to Mexico, Europe, South Korea, India, Canada, and Vietnam for auto parts, shoes, toys, and raw materials.
U. S. Imports of Goods Through Origin
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