중남미

Mexican maquladora industry has been the key dynamic force of the Mexican economic growth for the last 50 years. This program was designed at the first moment as the borderline development program after the end of Bracero program between Mexico and USA. Soon this industry became the major source of power for the industrialization of Mexican economy. There has been many researches about the origin, development path and status quo of Maquiladora industry. This paper focuses on analyze the key factors that has made up the growth and decline of this industry. The coupling effect between USA and Mexican economy, the competition from China, the wage difference between Mexico and it's rival countries, the movement of exchange rate, and the institutional factors like NAFTA were identified as the key factors for the maquiladora performance. Contrary to the general supposition, the wage difference was not determinant factor of maquiladora decline since peso devaluation complemented the Mexican loss of competitiveness. Also Chinese competition has affected the maquiladora performance in a limited range to textile and apparel industry.