Research Library

Amid U.S. efforts to strengthen supply chains and counterbalance China’s growing influence, Mexico is poised to benefit from “nearshoring,” writes scholar Adrian Duhalt. This brief explores how the Inflation Reduction Act and rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China could help Mexico secure its top trading position with the U.S. for years to come.

What's behind the rise of U.S. manufacturers “nearshoring” to Mexico? In this report, fellow David A. Gantz explores the historical drivers fueling this trend and the reasons why Mexico may struggle to attract foreign investment in the near future.

In June 2023, the international boundary treaty governing the U.S.-Mexico border came under attack from Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lonestar. In a new research paper, nonresident scholars Stephen Mumme and Regina M. Buono outline the treaty’s history and examine key issues — advising on merits of recent challenges and long-term implications for the binational relationship between the United States and Mexico.

The 2024 Mexico Country Outlook report analyzes key policy issues ahead of Mexico’s June 2024 elections, from foreign investment and regulatory challenges to migration and public security.

Supply chains: what are the alternatives if climate change restrictions on transiting the Panama Canal become a regular occurrence?

Sen. Xochitl Gálvez, the Mexican opposition nominee for president, chose to visit a suburb north of Houston for her first campaign event abroad. Research scholar Rodrigo Montes de Oca explains why it was a smart choice — and what the visit shows about the dark horse candidate.

Under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico is squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity to encourage significant new foreign investment. His successor will need to reverse course, writes David A. Gantz, the Will Clayton Fellow in Trade and International Economics.

This report explores the motives underlying Mexico’s contradictory climate change policies. Given the fossil fuel-centered actions of the López Obrador administration, the author argues that Mexico’s recent clean energy turn is merely an attempt to lower tensions with the U.S. — not a true commitment to combatting climate change.

As global energy markets continue their inexorable transition to a lower GHG future, sources of energy supply that are competitive, accessible, and environmentally favorable will thrive. This is exactly where U.S. natural gas can find its comparative advantage.

In this report, fellow Tony Payan examines three recent U.S. criminal cases involving high-ranking Mexican officials. These cases point to a new “policy” by Washington to use its long-arm jurisdiction to arrest, prosecute and punish Mexican officials who have committed crimes that harm U.S. interests, he writes.