Maquiladoras

Très bon article sur les maquiladoras, qui sont les manufactures qui se sont installées le long de la frontière entre le Mexique et les Etats Unis.  Celles-ci bénéficient d'un avantage fiscal du fait qu'elles ne doivent pas payer de tariffs et les impots ne sont payés que sur la valeur ajoutée au produit au Mexique.  La matière première est donc envoyée des Etats Unis, travaillé au Mexique où les salaires sont 10 fois moins chers et le produit est enfin renvoyé aux Etats Unis ou dans d'autres pays pour être vendu.  Les maquiladoras permettent à de nombreux Mexicains d'avoir un emploi, surtout pour les femmes.  Les salaires sont aussi plus hauts que dans les mêmes industries ailleurs au Mexique (1.5dollars par heure) et l'hygiène ainsi que la sécurité y sont respectés.  Les maquiladoras sont une aubaine pour les états frontaliers qui sont envahis de Mexicains venant du sud qui cherchent à passer la frontière.  Ceux-ci trouvent parfois un emploi dans les maquiladoras, plutôt que de voler où mendier.  L'article relève aussi les manquements du Mexique qui n'investit pas dans l'infrastructure et qui présente le désaventage d'être corrompu.  Il ne faut pas oublier que selon le FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT, une entreprise Américaine à l'étranger ne peut pas participer à la corruption.  Cette loi de 1977 est observée très strictement, et une entreprise qui ne la respecterait pas se verrait appliquée de lourdes amendes et peines de prison pour ses dirrigeants.  Le problème est qu'au Mexique il est absolument impossible de créer une société sans participer à la corruption.  Il est donc urgent que les lois et la bureaucratie qui créent des fonctionnaires mal payés (ce qui crée la corruption) soient abolis au plus vite si le Mexique veut rester compétitif.

Border maquiladoras enjoy upturn

Wire services
October 16, 2004

TIJUANA The surest signs of a turnaround in this teeming border city are the banners hanging on gates of factories and industrial parks: "Se solicita personal." Help wanted.

"A year ago you didn't see any of those," said Ross Baldwin, chief operating officer of Tacna International Corp., a maker of electronic parts and tubing whose 250-person workforce has grown by nearly 30 percent in 2004. "Now it seems like they're on every other building." Walloped by the 2001 U.S. recession and tenacious Asian competition, Mexico's "maquiladora" sector of export factories is lifting itself off the deck, helped largely by the uptick in the American economy.

The maquiladora factories foreign-owned plants located mainly in northern Mexico that produce goods sent to the United States and other countries added more than 80,000 jobs in the first seven months of the year. That's an 8.2 percent gain after three straight years of losses. Maquiladora shipments jumped more than 31 percent in August, thanks largely to demand from the United States, which absorbs about 90 percent of Mexico's exports.

It's welcome news for border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, whose local economies are stirring to life. Manufacturing companies are snapping up industrial space for expansion and bidding up wages in a scramble for workers.

But it's also important for Mexico as a whole. Maquiladoras are a key driver of Mexico's trade-dependent economy, accounting for about half of the nation's total exports. They are also a big reason Mexico's gross domestic product is expected to grow at a healthy clip of about 4 percent this year.

The United States also has a huge stake in the sector's vibrancy. Most of the export factories are American-owned, and an estimated 26,000 U.S.-based companies supply maquiladoras with raw materials and components, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Drubbed by China in recent years in the race to attract foreign capital, Mexico is seeing a renewed burst of interest from investors lured by the country's relatively low wages, proximity to the United States the world's largest consumer market and the potential of Latin America's largest economy.

Toyota Motor Corp. this summer cut the ribbon on a US140 million plant outside Tijuana producing beds for its Tacoma pickups. Those parts, in turn, are being shipped to the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant, a joint venture of Toyota and General Motors Corp. in Fremont, Calif. But Toyota plans to begin manufacturing entire vehicles in Tijuana this year, tapping Mexico's abundant engineering talent and lowcost factory hands.

"My goal is to make this facility as productive as any that we have in the world," said plant operations chief Joe da Rosa. "There is no reason why we can't." But whether Mexico can reach so high remains to be seen. Despite the recent maquiladora revival, many observers worry about Mexico's long-term competitiveness.

Mexico's unemployment rate just hit a seven-year high as the nation has continued to falter in its effort to create enough jobs to support its burgeoning population. Despite constant handwringing over the growing threat from China, Mexico's government has done little to tackle the high energy costs, tattered infrastructure, red tape, crime and corruption that are pushing some investors to Asia.

"Politicians point to the rising (maquiladora) employment numbers and say that everything is fine," said Carlos de Orduna, a San Diego-based maquiladora consultant and customs broker. "But everything isn't fine. Mexico has some serious, serious challenges to overcome." The industry ballooned in the last decade, fueled by passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico's mid-1990s peso crisis that made its exports cheaper, and the technology explosion in Silicon Valley. Electronics plants mushroomed in border cities such as Tijuana, which saw its maquiladora employment more than triple to nearly 200,000 workers during the 90s only to plunge by nearly a third in the bust.

The drop was so steep and abrupt, accompanied by China's continued swift rise, that some wondered whether it was the beginning of the sector's inevitable decline. But others contend that Mexico will always remain relevant in the global supply chain for three reasons: location, location, location.

Mike White, managing director of CB Richard Ellis for the twin cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, said the industrial real estate business in his area is bustling again.

He pointed to two new projects as examples of why Mexico still matters. Swedish appliance giant Electrolux recently announced it would build a refrigerator plant in Ciudad Juárez, while Lexington, Ky.-based Lexmark International Inc. plans to open a new toner cartridge facility there next year, adding to its four existing Mexican plants.

White said companies making bulky items such as refrigerators and some technology products such as printers, televisions and personal computers have good reason to keep some production in Mexico. These goods are too expensive to ship to the United States from Asia, and the tech products often are outdated in a matter of months, compelling producers to keep manufacturing lead times as short as possible.

U.S. companies that require small runs, rapid turnaround or just-in-time delivery are also likely to choose Mexico over China, despite Chinese wages that are a fraction of the US1.50an-hour average paid in Mexican maquiladoras.

"It's just not worth it for companies with a tight logistical time frame," White said.

But others say Mexico has rested on its real estate laurels for too long, expecting its proximity to the U.S. market to paper over a multitude of sins.

Tijuana logistics expert Jaime González Luna expressed frustration that a manufacturing powerhouse like Mexico lacked a deep-water Pacific port capable of handling the largest container ships, as well as the speedy rail connections and abundant, modern highways needed to zip cargo throughout the region.

"It's like we're succeeding in spite of ourselves for now," said González, vice president of Mundo Corporacion. "China is investing billions in these areas while Mexico falls further behind." Chastened by Tijuana's woes in the recent downturn, he and other members of the Tijuana Economic Development Corp. have gone on the offensive. The group recently held a news conference aimed at prodding public officials over issues such as crime and skeletal public transportation that were discouraging new investment.

Once thrilled by any industry willing to build a plant in its region, the organization is now targeting select industries such as automotive, medical, aerospace and software with the goal of moving Tijuana up the value chain.

And although the local economy is improving, Tijuana businesspeople such as Elias Laniado, chairman of the economic development group, say the boom times of the late 90s won't be back anytime soon.

Faced with the prospect of only modest growth, the group is marketing the city aggressively to new investors, particularly in California, no longer confident to let its prime location sell itself.

"We're knocking on doors from San Diego to San Jose," Laniado said. "We definitely feel a sense of urgency."

 

Ici une photo de sans-emploi Mexicains qui proposent leur services ; sur la place centrale du Mexico City (le Zocalo). Sur leurs panneaux sont écrit des choses comme: plombier, peintre, maçon…