How Closing the Southern Border Would Slam the U.S. Economy
John G. Murphy
Senior Vice President for International Policy
Can we estimate the cost of a border closure to the economy?
It would likely be in the tens of billions of dollars per day — certainly much more than the $1.4 billion in daily U.S.-Mexico merchandise trade.
Why would this be the case? Today’s lean manufacturers keep costs down by using just-in-time delivery for many parts and components. In this context, the delay of a few million dollars’ worth of inputs can force a shutdown of an assembly plant or other major manufacturing facility whose total output is orders of magnitude greater in dollar terms than the goods held up at the border.
A range of other products — such as fresh produce — would face immediate losses as merchandise piles up at the border. Some of this cargo would have to be written off as a total loss.
How Closing the Southern Border Would Slam the U.S. Economy
Closing the border and China offline would throw our manufacturing sector into chaos.
Automobile industry would grind to a halt and our produce would skyrocket causing hardship across the country.
Also we import good amount oil from Mexico and if we close the border the rise in gas price and gas shortages could happen.
Finally, we already have Coronavirus here, so closing the border does little to combat the issue...
