Nafta Briefs
05 May 2011
Modified: 15 June 2004
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Business incubators: Sergio García de Alba, the deputy minister responsible for small and medium sized businesses at the economy ministry, claimed that Mexico has only 68 business incubators while China has 130. Business incubators are operations, often attached to universities, designed to move business ideas from paper to set-up. Around the world there are around 2,500 business incubators, of which 1,000 are in the European Union.
China: Mexican companies are complaining about the dominance of Chinese companies in the school equipment market. Research from the Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Articulos Escolares y de Oficina
reckons that three of every 10 bits of school equipment come from China and two of them are probably smuggled in. Most ballpoint pens, fountain pens, pencils and crayons come from China or Taiwan. A lot of theseproducts are sold by pedlars, who undercut shops because they sell
smuggled goods. The Asociación claims that the unfair competition has already forced a 20% contraction in the industry and will lead to its
extinction unless the government does something. The big worry is that Chinese products will be able to come to Mexico with zero tariffs from next year, following China's admission to the World Trade Organization. In recent years Mexico has cut its tariffs on education equipment from 18% to 3%.
China: An Dali, the director of Chinese council for the development of international trade, said that there were lots of Chinese companies interested in setting up joint ventures with Mexican companies to do business in the US. He said that Chinese companies were becoming more interested in investing abroad. China has invested US$100m in setting up a textile plant in
Sinaloa.
Taiwan: The economy ministry in Taipei said that the country would be interested in building semi-conductor plants in Mexico once the two countries have signed a bilateral deal guaranteeing respect for foreign investments. Mexico does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Of the 26 countries worldwide which recognise Taiwan, 13 are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Eletrolux: Peasants in Chihuahua said that they would be prepared to sell land to a Swedish white-goods company, Electrolux, if it built a factory near Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the US. The peasants said that what they were not prepared to do was to allow the state government to expropriate their land and then sell it to Electrolux. The state government, headed by Patricio Martínez García, has been fighting a losing battle in the courts to overturn a presidential decree and gain control of 3,600 hectares of land. The land was granted to the municipality of San Isidro in 1984. Electrolux wants to spend US$87m on building a new factory which could create 10,000 new jobs. The factory is scheduled for opening in 2005.
The motor industry: The UN's Comisión Económica para América Latina reckons that there will be less investment in the motor industry from now on. Over the past decade, over US$50bn has been invested by the motor industry in new facilities, principally in Mexico and Brazil. The conclusion is a key part of Cepal's report on foreign direct investment in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2003. Over the past 10 years, Mexico has doubled its vehicle-building capacity to 2.1m vehicles a year while Brazil has trebled its capacity to 3.1m. Mexico's vehicle industry is geared to meeting the demands of the US market: 75% of the vehicles built in Mexico are exported. The value of these exports is around US$16bn a year.
Meat: Mexican customs officers seized 1,600t of pork, beef, turkey and chicken. The meat was being smuggled in from the US, New Zealand, Canada and China.
