DALLAS — Trade between Texas and Mexico is big business, creating billions of dollars in goods and services and millions of jobs.
But a new report by the Perryman Group says modern border politics are causing significant economic losses to Texas.
“We’re doing what we can to try to just remind people that there is a lot at stake here in finding some real solutions and some workable solutions and sort of trying to put the politics aside,” Dr. Ray Perryman told us on Y’all-itics.
The Perryman Group is an economic and financial analysis firm, and its studies often provide perspective on complex economic situations.
And for this report, the numbers tell the story.
For the first time ever, Mexico is the United States’ largest trading partner, generating just under a trillion dollars in gross domestic product annually and more than 8.1 million jobs.
Here in Texas, that trade creates $471 Billion in gross product and 3.6 Million jobs.
But the report says those dollars and jobs are under threat because of the inefficiencies caused by border politics, already costing Texas $1.6 Billion in output and nearly 17,000 jobs.
“The people who come from Mexico, who live in Mexico who come to work are basically about 10% of the Texas workforce. It’s 40% of our construction workforce. It’s 40% of our agriculture workforce. It’s 30% of our hospitality workforce,” Dr. Perryman said. “We don’t have an economy without those folks. The trade is very important.”
Dr. Perryman’s report doesn’t assign specific blame on any one situation or policy decision, instead taking an overall look at the aggregate.
But he does argue that the problem starts long before it gets to the border, and should end there too.
“The politics has gotten crazy. And there’s, you know, a lot of back and forth and people making political hay out of it. But I think they’re all trying to deal with it, deal with the problem at the wrong place. I mean, I don’t think the border is a place you can deal with the problem. You have to deal with it before it gets to the border,” he said.
Dr. Perryman also explains why the current situation at the border differs from historical precedent and how that makes solving the problem more complex. But he thinks it starts with helping Central American countries solve some of their socioeconomic problems. Listen to the entire episode of Y’all-itics to learn more. Cheers!