Mexico Cuts Tariffs to Aid Manufacturing

Recession in the US has significantly reduced demand for exports from Mexico. The country hopes lowered tariffs will help, in particular, to support its maquiladoras.

Located close to the US-Mexico border, the maquila is a manufacturing facility that imports components, assembles them and returns the now higher value final product back to the originating country. Mexico’s finance minister, Agustin Carstens, explains that between 2009 and 2012 there will be reduced tariffs on 5,000 different classes of capital goods and industrial imports. “The measures are timely,” he says, “taking into account the difficult economic context we currently face.”

Most currently available US government statistics indicate Mexico as the country’s third largest trading partner in goods, behind Canada and China. Through October 2008, Mexican trade in goods represented 10.8% of all US trade. Reports indicate that the US receives some 80% of all of Mexico’s exports.