US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday (Nov 25) pledged tariffs on the United States’ three largest trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China – detailing how he will implement campaign promises that could trigger trade wars.
Here are companies with a manufacturing presence in Mexico.
ASIAN AUTOMAKERS
Honda Motor sends 80 per cent of its production in Mexico to the US market and its chief operating officer Shinji Aoyama warned earlier this month if the US were to impose permanent tariffs on vehicles imported from Mexico, it would have to think about shifting production.
Nissan Motor has two plants in Mexico where it makes the Sentra, Versa and Kicks models for the US market. It produced nearly 505,000 vehicles in Mexico in the first nine months of this year. The company does not disclose how many of those were exported to the US market.
Toyota Motor has a smaller footprint in Mexico, making its Tacoma pick-up truck at two plants there.
It sold more than 230,000 of the Tacoma in the US last year, representing about 10 per cent of its total sales in that market. Toyota used to produce the Tacoma in the US, but now ships all of them from Mexico, where the vehicle is the only model it makes in its plants. Most of the production there is for exports to the US.
Mazda exported around 120,000 vehicles from Mexico to the United States last year.
Mazda President Masahiro Moro said earlier this month the tariff issue is “not a problem that can be solved by individual companies”, and it would carefully examine the details before deciding its response.
South Korea’s Kia Corp has a factory in Mexico that makes its own vehicles and a small number of Santa Fe SUVs for its affiliate Hyundai Motor for US exports.
TESLA SUPPLIERS
Tesla encouraged its Chinese suppliers to set up plants in Mexico in 2023 to mainly supply to the US automaker’s planned Gigafactory in Mexico.
Tesla originally planned to start production in Mexico in early 2025 but has largely walked away from that goal and shifted to an expansion plan with its Texas plant.
