How Will Massachusetts Be Affected By a Trade War with Mexico

Thursday, February 09, 2017

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Massachusetts ranks as the 23rd most affected state in the country by a trade war with Mexico, according to a recent study done by WalletHub.

“The border between the U.S. and Mexico may soon expand into a 40-foot-high, 1,000-mile-long concrete barrier separating us from them.

If and when the president’s plan comes to fruition, experts predict it will trigger a trade war between our two nations.

But the impact of the economic fallout will be different for every state,” said WalletHub.

According to the study, Massachusetts has the fifth highest percentage of jobs in the country supported by trade with Mexico.

The Rankings

Massachusetts is ranked 23rd behind Louisiana and Nebraska who ranked 21st and 22nd respectively. Massachusetts ranks ahead of Colorado and North Carolina who rank 25th and 26th respectively.

Texas is ranked as the state that will be most affected by a trade war, while Georgia is ranked as the state that will be least affected.

See the full rankings in the map below.

Source: WalletHub

The Method

To determine which states will be most and least affected by a trade war with Mexico, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia across five key metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the least favorable outcome for a state.

They then calculated the overall score for each state and the District based on its weighted average across all metrics and used the resulting scores to construct our final ranking.