Maquiladora
Topic: Secondary Activities: Manufacturing and Industrial Location · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A maquiladora is a factory in Mexico, mostly in towns on the US border. It brings in parts without paying import duty (a tax on goods coming into a country). Workers, paid less than in the USA, assemble the parts, and the finished goods are exported, mainly to the USA. The system began with Mexico's Border Industrialization Programme in 1965. It grew under NAFTA (1994) and its replacement, USMCA (2020). It shows how cheap labour and closeness to a big market together decide where industry locates.
Example
Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, and Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas, are major maquiladora cities. Their factories assemble goods such as electronics and car parts for the US market.
Don't confuse with
- Special Economic Zone (SEZ): an SEZ is a whole area with special tax and trade rules, such as Shenzhen in China (1980). A maquiladora is a single factory that works under a duty-free assembly programme.