Wal-Mart to invest $1.3B in Mexico

Wal-Mart’s Mexican branch announced plans Wednesday for a $1.3 billion infrastructure investment project over the next three years.

{mosads}The investment, slated to create 10,000 new jobs, follows a $2.6 billion expansion there over the past four years, reported Fox News.

“We are convinced that Mexico is a country rich in opportunities,” said Guilherme Loureiro, the CEO of Wal-Mart de Mexico y Central America (Walmex).

Analysts have warned of a slowdown in investments in Mexico due to uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s trade policies, but several major long-term projects have been announced over the past few weeks.

Trump vowed to renegotiate or discard the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the campaign trail, but he hasn’t revisited the issue as often as president-elect.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto hosted Wal-Mart executives at his official residence to announce the deal.

“Mexico is growing, it’s one of the few economies in the hemisphere that is growing, it has become the main economic engine of Latin America,” he said.

Trump also targeted U.S. companies that invest in Mexico, particularly those who employ manufacturing workers south of the border.

Last week, Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence announced a deal with air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier to keep 800 jobs in Indiana that would have moved to Mexico.

On the campaign trail, Trump used Carrier as an example of a company moving manufacturing jobs south, and vowed to slap a heavy tariff on products made by U.S. companies in other countries.

The Carrier deal was criticized from the left and right, including by some prominent Trump allies.

Last week, former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called the arrangement “crony capitalism.”

Despite the deal, the Carrier plant in Monterrey, Mexico, will still open and will employ 1,300 local workers.