The products made by maquiladoras are of a great variety. A company that imports raw materials without paying tariffs is called maquiladora.
The articles produced with this raw material are marketed in the supplier country of that raw material. This type of industry is very widespread in Mexico, exactly in the border area with the United States.
Most maquiladora companies are US-owned. They have set up large factories to take advantage of low wage costs.
This industry arises before the priority of the Mexican state for the development of the northern border of the country. Currently, about one million people work in the maquiladora industry.
At first only women worked, but lately men are also being employed.
Diversity of products produced by maquiladoras
The maquiladora industry assembles a very diversified quantity of products in its more than 2800 companies. This number of companies is distributed in several areas:
-Food industry: 56
-Tiles and other textile products: 390
-Walls: 57
-Furniture and other products made of wood and metal: 280
-Chemicals and pharmaceuticals: 110
-Transport equipment and accessories: 160
Non-electrical machinery and tools: 40
-Electrical and electronic machinery and equipment: 117
-Articles and toys: 40
-Service companies: 200
-Manufacturas as harnesses for automobiles and quadricycles, parts and spare parts for the automobile industry, among others: 600
Some well-known brands to name
Some of the companies that have factories in the maquiladora industry in northern Mexico are well known.
We can mention General Electric, General Motors, Panasonic, Electrolux, Chrysler, Hallmarks Cards, Ford Motors, Sony, Mattel, Hasbro, Hyundai, Converse, Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Delphi and Bosch among the most important.
A little history about the maquiladoras
The proportion of women and men is 60% of women and 40% of men.
Most of the people who work in the maquila do not exceed 25 years of age. Maquila companies pay one-sixth of what they would pay in the United States.
This industry had great growth in Mexico, much more than the manufacturing industry as a whole. This is due to the different economic crises that the country has gone through.
This generates that the Mexican peso loses value with respect to the dollar. In this way, it favors corporations that pay less for labor.
The main border cities of Mexico, with the United States, have increased their population because of the maquiladora industry. But since the year 2010 the activity of this industry has been decreasing.
The reason is because countries like India and Pakistan have even lower wages. One of the most negative parts of this industry is the environmental impact of its factories.
Despite agreements signed by both countries in which the United States committed to take the waste to their country to eliminate them, only 91 companies out of 2800 existing do.
The maquiladoras have given employment to areas with few natural resources. However, their low wages, environmental impact, and women's majority employment have created problems that are impossible to solve and difficult to reverse
References
- "Maquiladoras in Mexico"in: The maquiladora industry. Retrieved on 6 September 2017 in Don Quijote: donquijote.org
- "The maquiladoras in Mexico and their effects on the working class"in: Andres Comas Medina (November 2002). Recovered in: 6 September 2017. Andres Comas Medina: rcci.net
- "Making maquiladoras"in: Google Books. Recovered in: 6 September 2017. Books Google: books.google.com.ar
- "The maquilas, the economic engine of Ciudad Juarez"in: unargentinoenjuarez (June 2013). Retrieved on 6 September 2017 on unargentinoenjuarez: unargentinoenjuarez.wordpress.com
- "Maquiladora export industry in Mexico"in: Maquiladora industry. Retrieved on 6 September 2017 in: Cetys University: mxl.cetys.mx.