Trade with Mexico creates approximately 4.9 million jobs in the United States, according to a new research from the Wilson Center, a non partisan think tank in Washington DC. Despite what President-elect Trump says, that means that one out of 29 American jobs depends on preserving an economic relationship with the U.S.’s southern neighbor. 

Critics argue that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have been used by multinationals to send manufacturing jobs to Mexico so they can reduce labor costs. This part of the story is true, but there is also reciprocity: the number of American jobs that are involved in producing exports to Mexico, which would be lost, if the NAFTA is scrapped; also there would be a big deal of jobs that would disappear if the money American consumers and companies saved from buying lower-cost imports are gone.

For example: when an American consumer buys a washing machine made in Mexico, he or she can save about $100 since it’s cheaper for American companies to manufacture appliances in Mexico than in the United States. The consumer can then spend that $100 elsewhere, maybe at a restaurant or a clothing store. That money—which is spread across the economy instead of spent on a single purchase—helps keeps people employed in other sectors, according to the report. 

As reported in The Atlantic.