BTW, Nigeria's and South Africa's GDPs count in this argument, too.
For that matter, the only reason we landed on Africa is because you know it's got the smallest ties to U.S. economic statistics. Is Mexico's poverty vital to American business elites? That's a rather more pungent problem for you, isn't it?
Meanwhile, "Transaction costs" -- a poem:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.