JORGE IN THE MEDIA

Jorge Guajardo explains that the US-China trade conflict has evolved into a battle over supply chains, exposing US dependence on Chinese manufacturing. He sees a unique opportunity for Mexico and Latin America to attract new manufacturing by not just hosting factories but owning and controlling supply chains, which could reshape global industry.

According to Jorge Guajardo, former Mexican Ambassador to China and partner at the consulting firm DGA Group, there was a growing trend of car exports from China to Mexico that accelerated after some countries began imposing tariffs—such as Russia, which has applied a 50% tariff since March.

Because many mid-level positions in the administration have still not been filled.

Guajardo explains that U.S.-China tariff talks are key because both countries depend on each other for trade. He points out that despite proposals to lower tariffs, the actual rates are still high, affecting global supply chains. He highlights Mexico’s chance to benefit as companies rethink manufacturing locations.

Jorge Guajardo explains that China’s economic growth since 1979 is driven by reforms and large-scale urbanization, relocating about 20 million people from rural areas to cities annually. This migration fuels massive infrastructure demand, boosting industries like steel and construction. China builds infrastructure equivalent to 2.5 New York Cities each year, which has been key to its growth.

To examine the trade war between the United States and China following the tariffs imposed by Trump, Leo Zuckermann connects with expert Jorge Guajardo.

Jorge Guajardo explains the escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China, focusing on Trump’s move to increase tariffs to 125%. He highlights how this decision intensifies the dispute and its potential impact on global trade relations.

We’re falling for Chinese car imports, but they don’t benefit us. Said Jorge Guajardo. These cars lack essential parts made by local companies like Vitro, Draxton, Nemak, and Ternium, meaning they don’t contribute to our economy or provide us with quality. They don’t offer anything to improve our industry or our well-being, commented former ambassador Guajardo González.

Guajardo stresses that Mexico needs to urgently halt Chinese imports, as they undermine local industries and job markets. Despite their lower cost, these imports harm long-term economic stability. The former ambassador suggests Mexico should find alternatives to protect its economy, especially with growing pressure from the U.S.

Free trade, he said, changed that. If it goes away, Mexico would revert to "complete mistrust of the northern neighbor," reducing cooperation on crime, immigration, health and climate.

"For a long time, I have been warning Mexican publics that there's a big threat from China in terms of its exporting overcapacity. Something that we are very aware in Mexico and that we want to partner with the United States to keep that overcapacity out of North America."

Former ambassador Jorge Guajardo explains that China, not Trump’s tariffs, poses the biggest risk to Mexico’s industry. He covers how tariffs, nearshoring, and China’s economic challenges affect Mexican businesses, and what industries must do to survive amid global trade shifts.

Former Mexican diplomat and global risk consultant at DGA, Jorge Guajardo, said “The company thought that the only negotiation which mattered was with the government, and that they didn’t need to engage with the community.”

Jorge Guajardo, the former Mexican ambassador to China, said part of the reason Ms Sheinbaum has maneuvered around Mr Trump so deftly is because she had practice managing her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Jorge Guajardo stated that there is no way to compete against China, even with tariffs. He said that Mexico is a natural ally of the United States, which places it on the right side. Therefore, Chinese imports should be halted, and high tariffs should be imposed.

According to Jorge Guajardo, globalization, as it was previously known, has ended, and the time has come to create economic blocs.

"I'd be hard-pressed to find a country in the world that has aligned itself with the United States as closely as Mexico has with President Sheinbaum's statements and declaration saying that she wants to keep Chinese imports out, that she wants to manufacture in Mexico things that enter the USMCA," Guajardo said.

Jorge Guajardo, a former Mexican ambassador to China and member of an opposition party, said on social media, adding that other world leaders "will see in Sheinbaum how to do it well."

Former ambassador to Beijing Jorge Guajardo: Tariffs are a tool to counter China’s unfair industrial policies that threaten us all.

Said Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to China. “It’s a narrative that lacks substance.”

While she's suggested Mexico could retaliate with its own tariffs, she's refrained from tipping her hand. "She's been very smart and strategic," he said. "She wants to keep her powder dry."

“Political tolerance [for China] is going down.” Anything with a whiff of China is seen as suspicious.

“The U.S. sees Latin America as ‘ours to ignore'." Guajardo said U.S. economic buoyancy makes it the more attractive export market for Latin American and Caribbean nations in the face of slowing Chinese import demand and caution from Beijing on project financing compared with the last time Xi toured, in 2019.

In his country, which is proud of its car industry, the market share of Chinese-made vehicles has grown from next to nothing in 2016 to a fifth.

“The subsidies cannot easily be exported; they are energy, state and local taxes,” he says. “In countries which are competitive in their auto sectors, as is the case in Mexico, the Chinese will have to face a type of competition that they’d be hard pressed to face without the subsidies.”

“Their business model is contingent on state subsidies,” said Jorge Guajardo. A big test of this would be the company’s plans to build its first European car factory in Hungary. “State subsidies are usually also contingent on them producing locally . . . you lose all those advantages once you take the operation outside of China,” Guajardo said.

Beijing’s ventures can be heavy-handed or self-serving. Chinese investors have been criticized for importing workers for infrastructure projects, instead of generating local jobs, and for seeking control of large swaths of national territory. “The Soviets were going after the hearts and minds of the local populations,” Guajardo said. “The Chinese could care less.”