Trump’s tirades against free trade are hurting Latin America. And that’s bad for the U.S.

(Photo: Evan Vucci – AP)

When people ask me whether Donald Trump will be good or bad for Latin America, I respond that he has already been bad, because his aggressive rhetoric against Mexico and anti-free trade tirades are scaring away investments in the region. This week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) partially confirmed my fears.

In its first economic forecast of 2017, the IMF said the world economy will «pick up pace, » growing by 3.4 percent this year and by 3.6 percent in 2018. But the exception will be Latin America, it said.

The IMF revised downwards its previous economic projections for Latin America, saying that the region will grow by a lackluster 1.2 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2018. In addition to slower-than-expected growth in Brazil and Argentina, it cited what it politely described as «increased headwinds from U.S.-related uncertainty in Mexico.»

Curious about that, I called Alejandro Werner, head of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department, and asked him about the economic impact so far of Trump’s vow to build a wall on the Mexican border, slap a 35 percent border tax on car imports from Mexico, revise the NAFTA free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, and kill the 12-country Trans Pacific Partnership that includes Japan, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

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