How Mexico is Becoming the New China

How Mexico is Becoming the New China

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Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References
[1] https://www.barrons.com/articles/mexico-not-china-is-u-s-largest-trading-partner-51564769779
[2] https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2018-13248.pdf
[3] https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Investigations/Final%20Second%20Tranche.pdf
[4] https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Investigations/Tariff%20List-09.17.18.pdf
[5] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1319525/container-freight-index-shanghai-los-angeles/
[6] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.WD.GD.ZS?locations=CN
[7] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DNbsVeXlBSJZv-TkwtlYfrxfaKBxt0gC/view
[8] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/03/key-facts-about-u-s-voter-priorities-ahead-of-the-2022-midterm-elections/#:~:text=The%20top%20priorities%20for%20Democratic,%25)%20and%20abortion%20(75%25)

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48 Responses

  1. leonardo899 says:

    I’m Mexican, and I work in help desk. I’ve chatted with fellow colleagues who work from India and the Philippines. We compare our salaries in US dollars. Both Indians and Filipinos are surprised of how much less money we get than the do for doing the same outsourced job.

  2. Gerardo says:

    I live in Monterrey and can say that the impact of foreign investment in manufacturing has been really transformative to the region. However what I think this video fails to address is that it has increased inequality and cost of living for a lot of people. The opportunities created by these companies are not equal for everyone, and the government in Nuevo Leon has failed to address the issues of housing, transportation and enviromental concerns for the local population.

    • Nahome Tesfay says:

      ​@Просвещенный ГражданинHousing and environmental concerns can be addressed with zoning laws which are free or more accurately have no direct cost. Transportation infrastructure is often owned by the government otherwise all roads would be toll roads so it’s already the government’s responsibility.

    • Jesus Gerardo Morales says:

      ​@Просвещенный Гражданинwell leaving all to companies isn’t good either

    • Gerhard Smith says:

      Plus the fact that basically no city in Mexico want to grow upward, in a few years the mountains that are a symbol of Monterrey are just going to be another Ecatepec

    • Kasenom says:

      regio 🤠

  3. Juan Velasquez says:

    I live in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico and I can confirm that, despite the fact that it has become way more violent that it was before, Chinese, Japanese, and American manufacturing has grasped the state’s economy and has made it better than ever before. Most of the cities and towns that surround these factories are definitely poor and undeveloped yet thanks to these companies, things are starting to improve and will only get better over time (like Sam said) even though the government is not at its best and violence is worse than ever before.

    • Aaron Field says:

      I mean there’s really no other place to get avocados from

    • Informed Insights says:

      Very good video . Check out our take on this topic one week ago !

    • When Is dinner says:

      ​@João Cerceau the only limit is by their population

    • HomerOJSimpson says:

      @EebstertheGreat ” You aren’t wrong, but the way you wrote it is a little pessimistic” Because @João Cerceau actually is wrong in what they are suggesting.

    • HomerOJSimpson says:

      @João Cerceau “, you are only required as low cost labour force, fundamentally, there is no incentive to improve your wages after a certain threshold” and yet South Korea, Taiwan, Japan all became wealthy through this process. And China went from poorest country to middle income. Are your opinions really that void of reality? It’s a process every country must take to go from poor to upper income. In that process, the country earns money which it can then invest in it’s people and with sound policy can some day reach upper income.

  4. X1 Gen KaneshiroX says:

    As an American, I would really prefer that China grow more economically than Mexico. After watching this video, I realized that it’s extremely bad news for us Americans. Chinese goods and products are better value for money than many other countries goods. China and Mexico get along and are literally strong allies together, so I hope we keep it that way for the foreseeable future.

    • Johnny says:

      Mexican products for me in general surpass quality compared to american products, I would be happy to pay more for that quality in general than quantity that I go through quite often

    • Zengrath says:

      This is a good thing. Having good produced closer to home and also giving jobs and income to country will help them fight the war on drugs. if they can build economy and create legitimate jobs, it’ll take away from the need for people to become criminals and join drug cartels and traffic drugs, this would only lower the amount of crime, illegal border crossings, and drugs flowing from their country. I been saying for years the Mexican government needs to do more to find ways of creating jobs and building up economy with legal options so that they can have a much easier time cleaning up crime as they give people other things to do instead.

    • Smikkles says:

      @Zack Krueger totally agree with you. Especially the immigration part though. *IMO* both the Democrats and Republicans are focusing on the wrong thing. We need to invest and help to develop countries like Mexico and Guatemala to NOT give their people a reason to come here instead of just giving them the business when they do. I personally don’t have a problem with people wanting to immigrate but if everyone else in this country wants to be xenophobic then we better do it the right way lol

    • King Raptor says:

      @Alexander Philip Very well written and thought out comment.

  5. Vikram Garg says:

    Mexico is one of the largest producers of automobiles in the world, just behind Germany. Its manufacturing capabilities were never in doubt.

    • CG Mason says:

      @Meridian Mindset nope

    • Meridian Mindset says:

      @CG Mason China is the second largest exporter of cars, and projected to the first within the year.

    • Meridian Mindset says:

      Mexico doesn’t produce automobiles like Germany does. They do low value added assembly work for the most parts and there are zero domestic Mexican car companies.

    • HomerOJSimpson says:

      @CG Mason All the China accts show up whenever a story includes China.

    • HomerOJSimpson says:

      @kun with 10% of the population, of course they can never match China in total numbers. They don’t have the number of workers to do that. But as per capita, they certainly can. Wikipedia has per capita production of automobiles and last year data is 2020. Mexico was 1.5x higher than China. US almost 2x higher.

  6. HomerOJSimpson says:

    As someone that works in manufacturing, I can say the tariffs don’t ‘help’ the US bring jobs back but they did help us start looking at other options than China. It’s a long process though. Our company itself was assembly products that were getting 25% tariffs in China yet we saw little increase in sales though for the parts we used, we did begin to buy more from Vietnam and India. Overall, China was just slowly losing out to Vietnam, India and especially Mexico. I had a another job a company making similar products and they eventually ditched their small China factory and built one in Mexico.

    These things take years though. Even for an OEM to just to replace an existing supplier in China with one from another country, you need to order samples (can take weeks or months for delivery), test it (can take many months or even over a year), possibly re-sample many times until you get it right, then you need your customer to then test your product that has the new component and that could take months. Overall, a switch to a new supplier generally took us between 10-24 months to just get the new component approved depending no how important the part is to the function of the product. Usually the first order will have some 8-16 week delivery lead time so now you’re looking at 12-28 months between placing first sample to getting first production delivery.

  7. Archisman says:

    Mexico is doing a great job in rapidly becoming a manufacturing super hub. They are manufacturing literally everything in recent times, from Prismacolours to automobiles. Hope they can sustain their growth in the long run and become even more prosperous. Lots of love from India

    • Maui Gonz says:

      Yo India is also growing quite fast, we are brothers in growth

    • leonardo899 says:

      As a Mexican, I think that manufacturing in Mexico is the lesser evil.
      We get paid poverty wages. But then again, there’s nowhere else to work.
      Maquiladoras pay slave wages, but it’s either that or starve.
      The wages that Mexicans earn in maquiladoras, are only good for buying tortillas, eggs and beans. The money Mexicans get from all the hard work, is just not enough to make the country better.

    • Raymond Don says:

      usa # 1

  8. Marko says:

    I love the “Attacking symptoms rather than causes” line.
    Very Good. “Improve economy>Reduce Crime>Reduce Immigration”

    • Rob Schellinger says:

      @Adrián de la Torre Ebro Says who?

    • Mysterious Future says:

      @When Is dinner yes but new cartel leaders would take their place unless you get to the source of the problem. You have to cut off their business through legalizing, taxing, and regulating all drugs in the US

    • Alfonso Hernandez says:

      @EebstertheGreat English proficiency gets higher the further away you move from the US, at least within the Americas. Mexico ranks dead last

    • WakkaSeta says:

      @When Is dinner
      In it’s glory days and if the politicians had had sense? Yes. But now with Emma’s two moms leading the way to a “kinder and gentler” military? Not so much.

    • When Is dinner says:

      ​@WakkaSeta you’re acting like the United States Army couldn’t destroy the entirety of the cartel overnight if they wanted to

  9. Harrison La time traveler says:

    I saw a video recently to a podcast saying “How made in China is becoming Made in Mexico”, but I didn’t really think about it until you made this video. Thanks for informing us about this!

    • OD says:

      @HomerOJSimpsonthat guy bought yt likes

    • HomerOJSimpson says:

      @mattofthekeys Yes they are. Look at the comment “X1 Gen KaneshiroX”. It’s the top comment and it’s basically “As an American, I prefer China grow more economically can Mexico”. It had 4.4k likes. Then seconds later, 4k. Then 3.3k, then 3.0k then 2.9k seconds ago when I checked. Bought some likes and YT caught on.

    • mattofthekeys says:

      ​@Alex because chinese bots are flooding this comment section

  10. JRGio says:

    I can say anecdotally- my vehicle that was assembled in Mexico has tighter panel gaps, smoother paint, and generally just feels a little better put together than the vehicles I sell, from a sister luxury brand, whose vehicles are assembled 100% in the United States. It is impressive. And personally, I would prefer Mexican products to Chinese every day based solely on the points made in this video.

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