Maquiladora Plant Changes In Mexico

"In 1994, both countries [Mexico and the United States] signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which has increased their mutual trade and foreign direct investment. Between 1994 And 2005, the US-Mexico foreign direct investment flows increased substantially from 16,968 billion to $71,423 billion. By 2007, the Mexican commercial relationship with the U.S. almost tripled from $297 billion to $930 billion." [2] This mutual increase in business inherently has had an attendant growth in "the number of foreign enterprises who have situated in each country." [2] With this increase in international business and trade comes cultural shifts and increased globalization and differences in managerial functions.

Critics of NAFTA commonly focus on the U.S.'s trade imbalance with Mexico and Canada. Since labor is cheaper in Mexico, many manufacturing industries withdrew part of their production from the US. Almost 80 percent of the losses were in manufacturing. United States-owned companies employ Mexican workers near the border who are better known as Maquiladora Workers. They cheaply assemble products for export back into the United States. The program grew to employ 30 percent of Mexico's labor force with no labor rights or health protections. Mexico lost 1.3 million farm jobs. The 2002 Farm Bill subsidized U.S. agribusiness by as much as 40 % of net farm income. It became much cheaper and more profitable for people to send crops to Mexico. Mexico agribusiness used more fertilizers and other chemicals,

Sector has been benefitted and improved access to working environment of U.S. The U.S manufacturing workers and smaller U.S manufacturers have lost business due to NAFTA as well as affected severely on poor Mexican

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

Employing Mexicans for such minimal wages implies a peculiar kind of a 20th century imperialism: GM is able to extract enormous profits and to become the world’s largest corporation by super-exploiting labor in a country less well developed and economically influenced by the USA.

Over the years, women have been key participants in the work force, labor unions, and strikes. Recently, women have taken part in organizing the labor in the maquiladoras in Mexico. The duty-free assembly plants located on the U.S./Mexican border, known as maquiladoras, have threatened and abused their workers and repeatedly ignored the labor laws. Women have begun to take a stand and fight for their rights as well as for their fellow workers.

As a major contributor to the global economy, Mexico’s sweatshops have contributed to the United States’ wealth and economic growth. It is the unfortunate truth that many individual workers have suffered as a result of this prosperity. The sweatshops, known as maquiladoras, are in debate because of the ethical and lawful reasoning behind their existence and conditions. How can we, as a First-world nation, allow such industries to exist where people are denied basic and fundamental human rights? What, if any, laws and regulations are put into place for the maquiladoras? Are these laws and regulations hindering, harmful, or helpful? Are they enforced emphatically? If not, how does this affect development? After

The Maquiladora program has also been an integral part in the rapid growth of the Mexico-U.S. border region. The U.S.-Mexico border separates four U.S. states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) and six Mexican states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas). These are all called the twin cities, although the border politically separates them they share common air sheds and drainage basins. Seventy percent of all Maquiladoras are located in the border region of Mexico. “Over 1,600 Maquiladora plants in the border area employ over 510,000 workers, about half of which are located in the two biggest Mexican border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez”. There was a 13% growth in Maquiladora employment in the border region, within the interior of Mexico it was actually 28 %. At

Mario García’s study of this era could also be considered prophetic to many Mexicans in the mid-nineties as the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, it sank México’s economy, lands that the Mexican revolution had provided for farmers were gone, and as México was now obliged with treaty to buy produce from the United States. Mexican farmers unable to compete fled México once again in search for a better life to the United States.

1. Do you think the expansion of maquiladoras has been more of a benefit or a harm to Mexico? Why?

that the maquiladora industry led to 1.5 million jobs in Mexican cities. Due to the fact

After the introduction, the video shows texts stating that there are towns in the rural parts of Mexico where half the population has migrated to work within the US. As stated by one of the natives, the fantasy of endless opportunity is perpetuated by certain people that come back from the states, however while the people in Mexico see the wealth that the people who come back have, they don’t realize that they will have to work extremely long hours and endure the extremely dangerous journey into the US through smugglers and the like.

The devaluation of this currency leads to lower costs for the subsidiary, in relation to wages, since the peso has depreciated against the USD during this time period. The facility can purchase Mexican pesos with their USD profits at increasingly appealing exchange rates, and then use these pesos to finance new operations. By doing so, this shows the positive effect of the devaluation of the peso for the Maquiladora Assembly Facility.

GM needed to find a way to protect its long sustained success in the domestic market, and build as a global player, which had everything to do with its strategy in developing foreign markets. Given the volatility of the Mexican economy, GM needed to seek international markets

The American Outsourcing Case is a compilation of factual information for the purpose of provoking debates. The authors present both the pros and cons of outsourcing, and avoid inserting their personal bias. The case clearly defines outsourcing and then focuses on outlining its existence in China, Mexico, and India. The evolution and U.S. involvement in the Maquiladoras of Mexico is described first. The implementation of NAFTA and the creation of Maquiladoras were major catalysts in the growth of free trade between the U.S. and Mexico. China, in an attempt to attract foreign investors, created Special Economic Areas, which designated geographic zones that were enabled to operate under their own laws. With great tax benefits