Former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills says presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s stance on U.S.-Latin American trade relations is all wrong.

“Based on his public statements that he would impose 45 percent tariffs on China, a 35 percent tariffs on Mexico, and 10 percent tariffs on the rest of the world, I would expect a sharp disruption of our trade with Latin America and beyond,” she wrote for Latinvex.com.

“Most of Mr. Trump’s attacks have been directed toward Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),” wrote Hills, who served as US Trade Representative from 1989 to 1993, during which time she led the US negotiations with Mexico and Canada for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump has said Mexico is "killing" U.S. trade, threatening to build a border wall to keep out migrants, block remittances sent home by Mexicans, and raise tariffs against Mexico to protect U.S. jobs.

U.S.-Mexico trade is worth some $500 billion every year and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says roughly 6 million American jobs depend on it. In addition, an estimated 35 million people in the United States are Mexican or of Mexican background.

"I don't mind trade wars when we're losing $58 billion a year," Trump said in a Feb. 25 debate, referring to the 2015 U.S. goods trade deficit with Mexico.

Economists dispute the idea the United States is "losing" money as the trade deficit is simply the difference between what the United States imports and what it exports to a country.

Trump “is apparently unaware that today Mexico is our second largest export destination.  We export more to Mexico than to all the rest of Latin America, and more than we export to Germany, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands combined.  Losing that market would be devastating,” she wrote.

Trump’s tariff plan for Mexico and China would spark financial market turmoil and possibly even a recession, former trade negotiators, trade lawyers, economists and business executives told Reuters.

"Imposing tariffs or putting up trade barriers may sound good, but it will hurt our economy and credibility," said Wendy Cutler, the former acting deputy U.S. Trade Representative who helped lead U.S. negotiations in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal last year.

For its part, Mexico has increased dialogue with American companies to make the case for bilateral economic ties, a senior official, in an effort to counter anti-Mexican rhetoric in the U.S. presidential campaign, Reuters reported.

(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).

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