![A box depicting a product from Mexico, which just overtook China as the US's top trade partner.](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/us-trade-china-mexico-09212023-1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
Earlier this year, the global economy experienced an important milestone that, though it went largely unnoticed, scholars may look back on as a marker of the beginning of a new era, with economic but also geopolitical significance: For the first four months of 2023, Mexico surpassed China as the top trade partner of the United States.