Mexico may have reason to fear Donald Trump’s tough talk on trade.

While on the campaign trail, the Republican threatened to impose a 35 percent tariff on some products imported from Mexico into the United States – as well as to renegotiate more favorable terms in the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact among the United States, Canada and Mexico.

In the days following Trump’s election, Mexico’s economic minister declined to speculate on whether the United States might follow through on imposing such tariffs on the country. “We can’t anticipate anything, because we’d be anticipating something that wouldn’t suit anybody, which is a trade war,” said the minister, Ildefonso Guajardo. Yet Guajardo also said that Mexico would be willing to discuss NAFTA with the U.S. president and explain the pact’s strategic importance to him.

The tone was far more conciliatory than the statements that have emerged from China. Trump has threatened to label the country a currency manipulator in his first day in office and impose a 45 percent tariff on products imported from China.

In an editorial published Sunday, a state-run Chinese newspaper argued, “Making things difficult for China politically will do Trump no good.”

The editorial vowed tit-for-tat countermeasures against the broad range of American businesses that count China as one of their largest export markets. “A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus,” the state-run Global Times said. “U.S. auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and U.S. soybean and maize imports will be halted. China can also limit the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S.”

It makes sense that China might take a tougher stand against Trump than Mexico.

The United States accounted for 73 percent of Mexico’s exports and 51 percent of its imports in 2014, while Mexico accounted for only about 13 percent of U.S. exports and imports.

For China, in comparison, the United States accounted for 18 percent of the country’s exports and 8.8 percent of its imports in 2014. China accounted for 9.2 percent of U.S. exports and 20 percent of its total imports.

Even the smallest of these percentages represent a massive volume of trade. But while a dislocation from the U.S. export market would highly damage the Chinese economy, it could be catastrophic for Mexico.

“It’s a question of your alternatives to negotiating,” said Daniel Shapiro, head of Harvard International Negotiation Program.

“For Mexico, they arguably can’t walk away without doing substantial damage to their economy …. They are in a less powerful position than the U.S.,” he said.