If President Donald Trump makes good on threats to gut North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and impose stiff tariffs on Mexican goods, economists say he risks a trade war that could lead to the very thing he is hoping to avoid — a huge surge in Mexican migration to the US.
The result would be catastrophe for the Mexican economy: Recession. A dramatic weakening of the peso, even below the historic lows it has already set amid Trump’s bellicose rhetoric. Soaring inflation, interest rates and unemployment.
“Mexico is smaller than the US and can be harmed by conflict more than the US would be,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank that supports free trade.

Source: Arab News