How Lego got swept up in US-Mexico trade frictions

MEXICO CITY

Manufacturing a Barbie or a Lego brick requires large quantities of plastic, much of which comes from China, the world's largest producer of the material, so when Mexico hiked tariffs on the Asian giant at the start of 2026, its toy manufacturers, including local factories of Lego and Barbie-maker Mattel, had mixed emotions.

On the one hand, they cheered the clampdown on cheaper Asian imports, but on the other, they were left wincing at the rising costs of their inputs.

The toy sector is one of a raft of industries impacted by a year of simmering trade tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and Mexico, as well as China.

Polyethylene, the plastic used to make toys, is produced locally by the state-owned oil company Pemex.

But according to the toy industry, the company only manufactures 20 percent of what is needed, meaning the rest must be imported.

Many toys now also contain electronic chips, which also come primarily from Asia.

"If you, as a manufacturer, don't have the supply (of inputs) in the country, what do you do? You go out and find them," Miguel Angel Martin, president of the Mexican Toy Industry Association, told AFP.

He noted that the Lego sets purchased in the U.S. and Canada are all made in Mexico and said he hoped that the USMCA review would "be fair and benefit all three countries."

Some Mexican industries clearly stand to benefit from Sheinbaum's tariff blitz, such as the textile and footwear sectors.

Toy manufacturers, by contrast, are in "survival" mode, according to Martin.

He added that while the USMCA is being renegotiated, the industry will try to absorb most of the costs of its higher inputs.

But if the review, due to be completed by July 1, "does not produce a reasonably good outcome for the industry," he said, "then the consumer will be the one to pay the costs."