The sharp downturn in the performance of the maquiladora industry at the beginning of the decade left a perception that maquilas were an endangered species, principally from the relocation of operations from Mexico to China. But lately we have seen increasing interest from Chinese and Indian investors to open maquila operations. Those who were seen as fierce competitors six or seven years ago are becoming our partners.

      The enactment of the IMMEX Decree in 2006 further stressed that a new environment for maquila operations had emerged and new legislation was required.

      In a recent article, I recalled the origin of the word crisis. We regularly associate such word to chaos or fall. But the roots are rather interesting.  The word crisis has a Greek etymology that means change. But it has a blossoming connotation. Crisis is a moment of change with pain needed to get into a new stage.

      I believe that this is what happened to our maquila industry in the last six or seven years: A crisis in the true Greek meaning.

      The industry has been in constant evolution from its inception and so too its legislative framework. It would be interesting to account for the certainly hundreds of companies that have left over the years, and the new higher hundreds that have added up to a net plus. I remember the legendary Transitron, Admiral, Acapulco Fashion, operations with thousands of people in the early ‘70s that eventually closed their doors.

      Full industries bloomed and vanished like the coupon sorting operations AC Nielsen, Seven Oaks, etc. and the Tijuana garment industry, seed of the National Maquiladora Association.

      Eventually came the Japanese wave, the Korean wave, the Taiwanese wave (in the mid ‘80s, Taiwanese even owned an industrial park in Mexicali, Taimex; great vision but too early).

      Hopefully someone eventually gathers information to illustrate this in and out trend that added up to a double-digit growth for so many years.

            Throughout these years, while the industry was evolving and changing, legislation was stable, particularly as far as taxes is concerned. It was until the mid-1980s that the word maquiladora was incorporated in the value-added tax law, for good, to establish a 0 percent rate for maquiladora operations.

...Continued in the pages of Twin Plant News, Subscribe Today!