Mexico Can Thrive Without Trump

Donald Trump has put other nations on notice – the United States is reviewing relationships, expecting balanced trade and compliance on security matters. He promised that Mexico would pay for a border wall though such “demands have defied legal and economic rationality,” explains Ernesto Zedillo, Yale professor and former president of Mexico. Zedillo lists flawed assumptions including NAFTA was designed with disadvantages for the United States or canceled jobs in Mexico automatically transfer to the US. Renegotiating NAFTA is a waste of time, Zedillo argues. Mexico must assume that the US wants to kill NAFTA. He urges Mexico to continue sound economic policies and openness to global trade and alludes to another point of contention – the challenges of building a wall along the twisting Rio Grande shared by both nations: “it’s none of Mexico’s business if the U.S. government wants to add to its national debt by building a white elephant on its own territory. What we reject, under any circumstances, is any attempt to use a single inch of our territory to build such an abominable structure. All Mexicans are behind President Peña Nieto when he tells President Trump that we will not pay for his extravagant, offensive and useless project.” – YaleGlobal