Bordering on Perverse

From Corporate Watch For context, Maquiladoras are manufacturing and assembly plants that exist in border towns of Mexico and the US. A report issued by Global Insight, a Boston-based trade economic research consultancy, estimates that the number of maquiladoras on the border increased from 2,267 to over 3,400 in the first five years after NAFTA started, while employment at these factories almost doubled, from 681,000 to 1.31 million by 2004. But over the next five years, the overall trend has reversed, falling to 2,800 factories with 1.13 million workers by late 2004. Economic investment has also drifted downwards after peaking in 1999. The Life and Death of a Border Town by David Martinez, Special to CorpWatch June 12th, 2007

cartoon by Khalil Bendib In the town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, close to the U.S. border, two streets intersect: one is called Progreso (Progress) and the other is Fabrica (Factory). They are aptly named streets because they are thoroughfares that only house manufacturing plants called maquiladoras - giant mall sized buildings ringed with fences and with guardhouses posted out front. There are no houses or shops here – indeed, the sidewalks on Progreso and Fabrica are empty, and the only noise that can be heard during a workday are the trucks that drop off supplies and pick up finished goods. Some of the factories belong to well-known companies like Caterpillar or Sony, others to less well-known companies like Delphi. Early every morning at the beginning of the workday, special buses arrive from specific neighborhoods carrying workers, while others arrive in their own vehicles. They are smartly dressed young women and men whose jobs range from assembling videotapes to refurbishing defective machines. The factories are huge, employ thousands of workers and do brisk business. It is hard to imagine that they could ever pack up and leave, but it is a distinct possibility in the chaotic world of border economics. The number of maquiladoras began increasing in Nuevo Laredo and other border towns after the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA was signed in 1994. At the time there was much ado about NAFTA, and "free trade" entered the popular lexicon, with its proponents claiming it would bring prosperity to the impoverished population of Mexico, and its detractors predicting doom for U.S. workers and their Mexican counterparts. What, then, is the reality of "free trade" more than a dozen years later? Did thousands of jobs come to Mexico, as promised by the NAFTA boosters? Or was it a disaster for Mexicans, driving them deeper into poverty and dependence? The answer, as usual, is more complex than can be explained on the nightly news, and is best told in the plain words of the people who experienced it first hand. More here