Geo-spatial and sectoral change in assembly for re-export in Mexico. Structure,geo-space and strategy. 1990 to 2014

Abstract

Mexico has become the seventh world producer of automotive vehicles, but its func-tion as an assembler of parts and components from global firms, mainly from the United States,which absorbs almost 90% of the re-exports. The boom in automotive assembly is associated withtwo fundamental processes: on the one hand, it culminates the government effort to increaseemployment and foreign exchange earnings in a critical moment because of the slowdown onelectronics re-export. In addition to sustaining and expanding the assembly, the Governmentis committed to the modernization of the infrastructure, mainly road and ports. On the otherhand, the states on Central-Western region, where new plants have been recently opening,have increased their share in the GDP, causing a change at national level.In the first place, this increasing role played by Mexico in global production networks could beseen as an opportunity to launch an Asian-style strategy for technological learning. However,this is not the case, and not for the reasons that is usually offered, i.e., lack of initiative,but due to long-standing structural problems related to the nature of neo-liberal economicreform, a reform that curtails the scope for strategic action towards new economic policies.The article concludes by stating that an unplanned result of the automotive assembly boomis the emergence of a sort of platform for production and logistics derived from the relativeproximity of plants in that strategic region of the country. That platform could open a newopportunity for the integration of local companies as suppliers to automotive global networks,mainly in the service sector. Ironically, this opportunity is not perceived by policy makers, andfor the reason state above, its looks like there is no economic policy instrument at hand tomake that change.