La Jornada: They ask the President to strengthen the maquiladora sector

The National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry (Index) asked President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo not to weaken the maquiladora sector in the context of the T-MEC review.

The organization indicated in a statement that its leader, Humberto Martínez Cantú, participated in a business meeting on Thursday with the president, in which Sheinbaum Pardo called to take care of investments.

The representative of the maquiladora sector emphasized at the meeting that the program of the Manufacturing, Maquiladora and Export Services Industry (Immex) is important for the industrial, export, labor and investment attraction development of the country. This scheme allows the maquiladora industry to make temporary imports with tax incentives to return abroad.

The business leader pointed out that, except for automotive manufacturers, each new manufacturing investment that is announced lands in the Immex program, but it needs a new stage of modernization, institutional strengthening and greater integration with the national economy.

Export vocation

“Mexico should not weaken Immex; on the contrary, it should modernize and strengthen it. We need a program that preserves its export vocation, but with more legitimacy; that maintains its competitiveness, but with better controls; that continues to attract investment, but with greater traceability, and that continues to be an engine of employment and manufacturing, now with greater integration with national and regional suppliers,” said Martínez Cantú.

“That is the correct route: more legality, more regulatory intelligence, more facilitation for those who comply and more national content in what we export. That is the meaning of the evolution of the program. That must be the spirit of an Immex 4.0,” he added.

Behind each export process, he stressed, there are not only figures, but millions of Mexican families that depend on this model for their well-being, employment and future. He indicated that when the system works with efficiency and certainty, not only the industry is strengthened, but also household income, the stability of communities and the real possibility of social mobility for the people of Mexico.