Dive Brief:

• Retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico will invest $1.3 billion in logistics in the country to build new distribution centers and expand existing operations, in the process creating 10,000 new permanent jobs, Reuters reports.

• The deal was announced in Mexico City at the office of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and comes on the heels of president-elect Donald Trump’s high-profile deal to mitigate the number of jobs that Indiana-based United Technologies Corp’s Carrier unit plans to move across the border.

• Jobs will not not migrate from the U.S. as a result of Wal-Mart’s investment, spokesperson Jo Warner told Reuters. "The investment is funded by Walmex and is necessary for expansion of Wal-Mart's Mexican business," she said. 

Dive Insight:

Since opening its first Mexican store (a Mexico City Sam’s Club) in 1991, Wal-Mart has built a significant business in the country, with 2,379 stores — more than any nation outside the U.S. — as well as 194,000 store employees and growing e-commerce sales, according to Wal-Mart's website. The retailer has already invested $3.93 billion in the country over the past four years, Wal-Mart de Mexico CEO Guilherme Loureiro said.

While Wal-Mart is downplaying any comparison between the now-infamous Carrier deal, several news outlets seized on that. Indeed, the high-profile announcement at the Mexican president’s office, with Wal-Mart de Mexico executives and Mexican government officials standing side by side and exchanging pleasantries, demonstrated a decided mixture of business and politics.

In addition to Trump's campaign promise to build a literal wall between the two countries, the president-elect has criticized American businesses with operations there and threatened to end participation in the North American Trade Agreement, which has nurtured trade between the two countries and potentially helped spur Wal-Mart’s entry there. 

National Retail Federation CEO and President Matthew Shay congratulated the election winners in a press release emailed to Retail Dive last month, pledging to work with Trump and the Republican-majority Congress on a "pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda."

"The next few months will offer many opportunities for us to educate lawmakers on our priorities, such as tax reform and investment in our nation's infrastructure, as well as pro-growth policies that create jobs and reward capital investment," Shay said. "If this election taught us anything, it is the importance of focusing on policies and programs that not only benefit today's economy, but the economy of the future and our next generation of workers."