Assignment 2: Reforming NAFTA

Imagine being crammed in a un-air conditioned room with hundreds of workers in the Mexico heat. Imagine sewing all day and developing sore wrists which can lead to tendonitis. Imagine after nine grueling hours of work not getting paid enough to purchase food and other necessities for your family. Maquiladoras are very well known among the Mexico and US border. They conduct under tariff free materials which are imported to the companies. The North American Free Trade Agreement has a huge advancement and have grown by employing tons of Mexican workers. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) promised to increase workplace efficiency, help corporations, and to improve the lives of many workers. In my opinion, NAFTA did not keep their promise. They definitely did not improve the lives of many workers and everything else they guaranteed. NAFTA has not kept its promises because they work in terrible conditions, they do not get paid enough, and they are giving up hope.

However, on the other hand, Maquiladoras also compete with workers further south that would work for less. Maquiladoras work forty-eight hour weeks and average about $2.00 an hour. Although it is income and the Maquiladoras can purchase food for their children, they still live without running water and electricity. They could stand together against the poor wages, but they

Impact of NAFTA on Mexico’s manufacturing industry – Effect on Productivity, Wages rates, Incomes, and Investments in FDI

A maquiladora is a manufacturing plant based in Mexico where foreign companies import materials and equipment, on a duty free and tariff free basis, for the purposes of processing, manufacturing, or assembling goods which are then exported to other countries. The idea behind these maquiladoras promises a prosperous Mexican society. On paper, it really does seem like NAFTA is living up to expectations; creation of more jobs and a much less unemployment rate. On the surface, there seems to be nothing wrong with what’s going on in Mexico in terms of employment. Everyone has jobs and everyone is getting paid for these jobs, so what’s the issue? Despite all of this, the degrading and terrible working conditions imposed upon the maquiladora workers

Increasing the wages of employees would make a point against the misogynistic view that poverty-stricken women are an ideal source of cheap labor. This stems from an academic article, “Murder in Juarez: Gender, Sexual Violence, and the Global Assembly Line”, written by Jessica Livingston. In the article she states, “If this male resentment and hostility was not tolerated by Mexican authorities, and if it could also be reduced with more egalitarian and better paying working conditions, perhaps the murdering of women in Juárez would also cease” (71). High male unemployment after the establishment of NAFTA meant men in the local Juárez area had and still do have to look for work elsewhere, often north of the border, because the new job openings targeted mainly young women. This gender bias causes violent repercussions against innocent women and girls merely attempting to make a living. This does not apply only to the maquiladora plants, but to other multinational corporations NAFTA enticed with cheap Hispanic

Companies in the 1960’s realized that they could lower labor costs by moving plants to other countries with lower minimum wage than here in the united states. These assembly plants just south of the Us-Mexico boarder are called maquiladoras. These plants didn't just allow for labor costs to be lowered but also duty-free production, only rule was the goods must be exported out of Mexico. The maquiladoras also gave much needed jobs to the Mexican workers. The first few years of the new millennium many of these maquiladoras went out of business, due to lower wages in countries such as China and Guatemala. Since 2004, we have seen a rise in the number of maquiladoras on the Mexican boarder. We are seeing this increase because of high value products

than all of Mexico, but it came at a price. In Maquiladoras these factories are operated by

Being a neighbor to the maquiladoras industry for a very large portion of my life, never stopped to wonder what was the purpose of the maquiladoras? How do maquiladoras relate to cheap labor and low economic opportunities? Can the pros and cons of the maquiladora industry affect the global economies? Could our health be affected by the maquilas? Also, regarding the placement of these industries- does it affect the infrastructure of our border cities? Some of the reasons why I choose this topic was to let the reader have a general understanding of the maquiladora industry.

When NAFTA was created, no one really understood the impact that the measure would have on the world economy. Drilling down, NAFTA impacts put Mexican farmers out of business due to the “government-subsidized U.S. Farm products.” (Source: https://www.thebalance.com/disadvantages-of-nafta-3306273) As described in the New York Times, exports from the US to Mexico of “corn and other staples” that were subsidized on average of $20,000 per year by the US Government, resulted in “small farmers finding themselves unable to make a living. Some two million have been forced to leave their farms since Nafta.” (Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/24/what-weve-learned-from-nafta/under-nafta-mexico-suffered-and-the-united-states-felt-its-pain

The main point of the article is that changes are being made that are shifting the way the maquiladora plants are operating. This particular story takes place in Tijuana, however, the changes are affecting all of the maquiladora plants all along the Mexico - United States border. The maquiladora plants are having to make changes because the Mexican government “[cut] some of their tax breaks“ (Mexico’s maquiladoras). In previous years the maquiladora plants had lost a lot of business to Asia where lower wages could be found. Lately, the “rising pay in China“ was bringing jobs back to Mexico (Mexico’s maquiladoras).With the reduction in tax benefits, the maquiladora plants are once again loosing business to other locations.

When countries have needs but not the capacity to satisfy those demands they enter into trading through the exchange of surplus, produce to help their trading partners. Canada, Mexico, and the United States created a treaty to establish a relationship that can benefit everyone in this process known as NAFTA. This agreement has been criticized and has been blamed for hurting the US economy more than helping. Although speculations may be misguided, I do not know much about this agreement, and I must research multiple sources. This paper seeks to understand if NAFTA has produced significant benefits for Canada, Mexico, and the United States economies.

In Mexico, the maquiladoras are a great and beneficial source for the economy, rising up their earnings and wasting little money on their employees. Maquiladoras are own by large corporations, which they only seek for more earnings by establishing these maquiladoras in profitable locations. These corporations know exactly where to locate their maquiladoras, within near poor communities, where families are in need of jobs to put food on the table. The majority of the maquiladoras mainly hire women that are willing to work under harsh conditions. These women obtain unfair treatment and low quality of work conditions, and the reason some of these women continue to work for the maquiladoras is because they need the job to support their

One of the big problems that people see with NAFTA is that companies are leaving for economic advantages in other areas within NAFTA’s borders. In America, specific industries were hit hard by the new opportunities, with a “loss of 500,000-750,000 U.S. jobs. Most... in the manufacturing industry... [moving] to Mexico because labor was cheap” (Amadeo). On the other hand, much of the agricultural production started coming from American farmers, who have more efficient ways of mass producing crops than most Mexican farmers. Although this specialization may seem like a problem, with manufacturing playing a key part in America’s past economic success, it is more profitable for us to sell our crops to Mexico and Canada than the loss from factories leaving the country.

In Mexico, the maquiladoras are a great and beneficial source for the economy, rising up their earnings and wasting little money on their employees. Maquiladoras are own by large corporations, which they only seek for more earnings by establishing these maquiladoras in profitable locations. These corporations know exactly where to locate their maquiladoras, within near poor communities, where families are in need of jobs to put food on the table. The majority of the maquiladoras mainly hire women that are willing to work under harsh conditions. These women obtain unfair treatment and low quality of work conditions, and the reason some of these women continue to work for the maquiladoras is because they need the job to support their families. Also, maquiladoras are known for paying slightly higher wages than common jobs in which women had worked before. Though, these conditions for working in maquiladoras does violates these women’s human rights and the mistreatment they received from working long tough hours can cause serious problems to their health. The maquiladoras in Mexico are always looking for cheap labor in order to “pay less and make more”, creating a social injustice on women working for maquiladoras. Numerous women working for maquiladoras are view as objects of labor and nothing more, these corporations take advantage by putting the women’s body under extreme corrupt working conditions. Maquiladoras owned by these large corporations that are from countries in

The North American Free Trade Agreement or as its most commonly known NAFTA “is a comprehensive rules-based agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico”, that came into effect on January 1,1994. All three countries signed it in December of 1992; later on November of 1993 it was ratified by the United States congress. NAFTA was not only used in cutting down on tariffs between both countries but it also help deal with issues such as Transportation, Border Issues, and Environmental Issues between these two countries. NAFTA changed some tariffs immediately and within fifteen years other tariffs will fall to zero. NAFTA was not created to just lower tariffs it was also created to open protected sectors in agriculture, energy,