Maquiladoras & NAFTA Essay -- essays research papers

MAQUILADORAS AND THE NAFTAS IMPACT excogitation In this paper I go out discuss the history and practices of the Maquiladora industry. I will discuss its background, its problems, the benefits it offers to United States companies, and the impact the NAFTA has and will have on the industry. In addition, I will make a suggestion on a possible st rollgy the Maquiladoras can adopt in aim to address the challenges brought on by the NAFTA, to ensure it remains a ardent force in the future. Background Mexican agricultural workers had been granted jury-rigged work visas allowing them to work in the United States agricultural industries through a program called the Bracero course of instruction until 1965 when this program was terminated. As a result of this termination, the un fight rate had exceeded 70% in certain border cities. In May of 1965 the mete Industrialization Program was established as a replacement for the Bracero program. It was afterward renamed the Maquiladora Program. The program was established by the Mexican government to provide employment for Mexicos rapidly growing population along its border with the United States. This Program was utilized to keep Mexicans from entering the United States. The idea was that Mexican workers would be kept on the Mexican side of the border if they were given pulverisation jobs on the Mexican side. The Maquiladora program also wanted to attract hostile manufacturing facilities, technology, and know-how by giving a permanent tax holiday to manufacturing companies that would exercise up "twin plants" on the Mexican side of the border. In the opening of the program, all foreign-owned operations had to be located within a 20-kilometer pick along the US-Mexican border. Since 1972 they can be located anywhere in Mexico. In 1996 there were around 2,500 Maquiladoras - 35% of them were located in the interior states of Mexico. blend year there were over 3,000 and more than and more of these operations ar gon being located outside of the border regions. Each of Mexicos 31 states has at least one Maquiladora. What is a Maquiladora? Maquiladoras, also referred to as "in sequester" or "twin" plants, are allowed to temporarily import into Mexico (free of tax) machinery, equipment, replacement parts, keen materials, and just about anything that was used in the assembly or shape of semi-finished or finished products... ...on between the non-Maquiladora and Maquiladora industries I feel the inefficient producers will be wiped out. Therefor, Maquiladora employees will need better training, education, incentives as well alter working conditions and higher wages. Operations will also have to be streamlined in order to reap the benefits of economies of scale and scope. In addition, Mexicans as well as US citizens will start to demand more accountability from the Mexican government and the Maquiladora industry. They need to be more trustworthy for their actions. What will t he U.S. corporations do when human rights activists and environmentalists start lobbying and protesting on their US sites? Do they want to risk losing their shareholders to this type of negative attention? References Benitez, Gerardo, Latin American Perspectives The Maquiladora Program Its Challenges Ahead, THE WHARTON JOURNAL, December 11, 1995. Clifford, Frank and Mary Beth Sheridan, Borderline Efforts on Pollution, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, June 30, 1997, 1. Naumann, Ann K. and Mireille Hutchinson, The integration of Women into the Mexican Labor Force Since NAFTA THE AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST, June/July 1997, 950-956.