Field Note: Economic Sectors of Mexico - The Caribbean is drowning in record seaweed and the tourists keep coming anyway.

Sargassum pressure hit record levels this summer. Tourism has not collapsed, but the first cracks are now visible in the 2026 airport data. What the numbers say, and how a traveler can still plan around the mess.

Field Note: Europe just gave Mexico a horizon Washington took away three weeks ago.

Issue 13: Germany was Mexico's third biggest foreign investor. It fell out of the top five.

60 percent of German companies plan further job cuts in Germany through 2030, per a Handelsblatt survey. German investment in Mexico dropped at least 40 percent in Mexico's record year. Three of Mexico's trade agreements moved in two weeks. BMW confirms San Luis Potosí for its next electric generation. Safran opens a US$140 million engine maintenance hub in Querétaro. Chinese brands now sell more cars in Mexico than Volkswagen.

Field Note: Is Mexico more digitalised than Germany?

Not overall. But yes on the two things you operate through: how money moves and how the state is dealt with.

Issue 12: Are You Ready for the Change of Tides in the Trade Balance?

Computing passes cars as Mexico's top export. Mexico's imports from Taiwan surge 283 percent, pushing Taiwan far past Germany as a supplier. New German job vacancies at a 25-year low while auto suppliers bleed fastest. The VW Group reportedly weighing German plant closures the same week Audi workers in Puebla win a raise. Aguascalientes foreign investment and where Germany ranks. Döhler's expansion into Estado de México. The EU-Mexico vote clears committee in Brussels. And what US negotiators want from auto content.

Field Note: Around 120,000 German jobs gone in a year. We were told the work moved abroad. Abroad doesn't show it either.

German manufacturing job losses, the offshoring story used to explain them, and the destinations that can't account for the missing workers.

Issue 11: The quiet European move on Mexico

Europe signed a trade deal with Mexico and within weeks three players moved. France, Switzerland and Airbus each positioned differently while Germany, the largest EU trading partner, stayed quiet. The ratification clock now decides who gains the advantage.

Field Note: Wage Paradox Part 4: The entire business case for nearshoring

Mexicans are the affordable ones, not the Germans. So are German workers more productive, or just more expensive to employ?

Issue 10: Mexico built a surveillance state for the World Cup. Europe sells the cameras it won't allow at home.

Plan Kukulcán. Heard of it? More than 100,000 personnel, facial recognition and European firms selling Mexico technology their own union would heavily restrict and in key cases ban, if pointed at a crowd back home.

Field Note: ⚽World Cup edition - Mexico is hosting the World Cup. Most Mexicans will watch it from outside.

Twenty days after signing the Modernised Global Agreement (MGA) , Mexico opens a tournament where a stadium beer costs a day of minimum wage, a visitor spends a local monthly salary per day, and FIFA keeps the core revenue. For six weeks, the cameras become due diligence Mexico does not control.

Issue 9: One Country, Five Doors. Here Is Where the Next Investments Land

Germany sent its foreign minister. Spain sent capital. Belgium took the port. Five European countries moved on Mexico in one fortnight. Each reached for a different layer. The next FDI wave looks more chemical than automotive. Plus: the Spanish investment stock, the Veracruz expansion and why Washington's pressure is doing Europe a favour.

Field Note: Mexico's Wage Paradox, Part 3 - The Benefits Germany Stopped Paying For

Why a German and a Mexican compensation package are built on opposite logic: where each puts health insurance, pension, vacation and profit sharing, and why comparing the two salaries tells you almost nothing.

Issue 8: Washington is squeezing Mexico from the north. What does that mean for the Europeans who just moved in?

The USMCA review opens July 1 with the tariffs still on, Banxico cuts its growth forecast to 1.1%, a $1.2 billion European pharma wave lands and a ratings split puts Mexico’s credit on trial. The risks, read from the European side.

Field Note: Mexico’s Wage Paradox, Part 2- What the Wage Actually Buys

Mexico is not as cheap as we believe, and Germany is not as expensive as it seems.

Issue 7: Two downgrades, one signature, one looming review

Mexico signed with the EU, got downgraded by Moody's and prepared for a USMCA review that nobody expects to end cleanly. All in five days.

Field Note + Free Guide: What the new EU-Mexico trade agreement means in practice

Practical steps to follow, requirements to check and what to do next.

Issue 6: 10 Things You Need to Know Before the EU-Mexico FTA Gets Signed

If you read one thing about the EU-Mexico agreement signing this week, read this.

Field note: Mexico's Wage Paradox - Part 1 - The Numbers That Don't Add Up

Mexico is still cheap enough to sell. But the wage trajectory is no longer stable enough to ignore.

Issue 5: Mexico Is Running Three Clocks. Will It Still Miss the Alarm?

USMCA 2026, the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement and Plan México Acciones are converging in the same window. Mexico has the access. The question is whether it can keep more of the value.

Field Note + Free Guide: Germans and Mexicans Vol. 4 - Efficiency Requires More Than Translating Words

The Germany-Mexico corridor breaks when companies translate language but not the operating system.

Issue 4: Mexico’s Nearshoring Boom Is Becoming a Querétaro Story

Mexico’s economy contracted. Germany’s labor market weakened. Yet Siemens, Brose, Liebherr, Hansa-Flex and Vibracoustic kept moving deeper into Querétaro and the Bajío.

Field Note: Germans and Mexicans Vol. 3 - The Productive Distance

The differences nobody names before the first misunderstanding.

Issue 3: More than $6 billion in US cloud infrastructure landed in Mexico. German multinationals run their operations on it. Their GDPR risk maps may not have caught up.

The corridor is not just automotive and logistics anymore. It is data, AI, and competing legal jurisdictions. The policies are years behind the infrastructure.

Field Note: Cybersecurity belongs in TLCUEM. So far, nobody is demanding it.

The breach already happened. The exposure for German firms is still ongoing.

Field Note: The FTA Series — The last deal was worth 4x less than the one being signed.

The deal has not been signed. Players are already moving.