Mexico’s foreign minister defended her nation’s economic significance to the United States on Monday and condemned anti-migrant speech-making and what she described as “climate of intolerance” in its neighbor, a shy veiled critique of Donald Trump.
Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu rebutted many of Trump’s arguments in a rich explanation of how integration of the U.S. and Mexican economies has made benefit to both nations; however the latter did not name the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Trump has raised hackles in Mexico with a string of proposals, including threats to build a border wall to keep out migrants; by the time many Mexicans feel their government has not done enough to counter Trump’s argument.
U.S.-Mexico trade is worth some $500 billion every year and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says roughly 6 million American jobs depend on it. Moreover, an estimated 35 million people in the United States are Mexican or of Mexican background.
Ruiz Massieu highlighted economic integration stating that almost 40 percent of the content of Mexican export goods is of U.S. origin, and that Mexican outward investment in the U.S. had jumped 35 percent in the last five years to reach $17.6 billion.
“So we’re definitely not part of the problem, we’re part of the solution,” she added.
“Those who attempt to make political gains by stigmatizing these people, be they Mexicans, Jews, Muslims, people of color, (or) Asians, are wrong,” she said.
Trump has floated the idea of a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and also attacked China over trade.