Because of the free trade agreements between Mexico and EU, maquiladoras are also an option for Norwegian firms. However, there are no possibilites for Norwegian firms to export through NAFTA to the US and Canada.
06/03/2008 :: However, there are several issues and critics connected to the industry, regarding wages and working conditions.
There are over one million Mexicans working in over 3,000 maquiladora fabrics manufacturing or export assembly plants in northern Mexico, producing parts and products for the United States. These products include electronics equipment, clothing and furniture among others.
Mexican labor is inexpensive and courtesy of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), taxes and custom fees are almost nonexistent, which benefit the profits of corportations. Most of these maquiladora lie within a short drive of the U.S.-Mexico border. Maquiladoras are owned by U.S., Japanese, and European countries. The average staring wage for most maquiladora workers is 110 pesos per day, with employees receiving a full day of pay on Sunday. Additionally, Mexico has a socialized medical system which every employer must pay into, social security, severance pay, paid holidays, mandatory bonuses and child care. The fully loaded wage rate for a new unskilled laborer working in a maquiladora is $2.30 an hour, taking into consideration all of the cash and non cash fringe benefits. NAFTA has started to pay off somewhat - some maquiladoras are improving conditions for their workers, along with wages.
History
During the later half of the sixties, maquiladora industries rapidly expanded both geographically and economically and by 1985, had become Mexico’s second largest source of income from foreign exports, behind oil. Since 1973, maquiladoras have also accounted for nearly half of Mexico’s export assembly. Between 1995 and 2000, exports of assembled products in Mexico tripled, and the rate of the industry’s growth amounted to about one new factory per day. By the late twentieth century, the industry accounted for approximately 25 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product, and 17 percent of total Mexican employment.However, profits generated from maquiladoras are typically sent back to the United States, or other investor-based countries, and therefore, maquiladoras do not promote direct economic development within Mexico.
Since globalization has contributed to the competition and advent of low-cost offshore assembly in places like Taiwan, China, and other countries in Central America, maquiladoras in Mexico have been on the decline since 2000. According to federal sources, approximately 529 maquiladoras shut down and investment in assembly plants decreased by 8.2 percent in 2002. Despite the decline, there still exist over 3,000 maquiladoras along the 2,000 mile-long United States–Mexico border, providing employment for approximately one million workers, and importing more than $51 billion in supplies into Mexico. As of 2006, maquiladoras still account for 45 percent of Mexico’s exports.
Source:Swedish Trade Council
Examples of Maquiladoras in Mexico:
3 Day Blinds
20th Century Plastics
Acer Peripherals
Bali Company, Inc.
Bayer Corp./Medsep
BMW
Canon Business Machines
Casio Manufacturing
Chrysler
Daewoo
Eastman Kodak/Verbatim
Eberhard-Faber
Eli Lilly Corporation
Ericsson
Fisher Price
Ford
Foster Grant Corporation
General Electric Company
JVC
GM
Hasbro
Hewlett Packard
Hitachi Home Electronics
Honda
Honeywell, Inc.
Hughes Aircraft
Hyundai Precision America
IBM
Matsushita
Mattel
Maxell Corporation
Mercedes Benz
Mitsubishi Electronics Corp.
Motorola
Nissan
Philips
Pioneer Speakers
Samsonite Corporation
Samsung
Sanyo North America
Sony Electronics
Tiffany
Toshiba
VW
Xerox
Zenith