ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide some perspective on the role of the maquiladora industry in Mexico's economic development. It seeks to strike a balance between the benefits maquiladora bring to Mexico and the uncertainties inherent in this mode of production. The maquiladora plants are established essentially as export industries. They burgeoned after the Mexican peso was devalued in the early 1980s. Mexico permits a proportion of maquiladora production to be sold internally. While the Mexican authorities have no viable choice but to foster the further development of maquiladora because the jobs and the foreign exchange are needed, they do have some control over the form this development takes. Maquiladora plants represent a stage in international industrial production. They are a means of carrying out co-production between firms in advanced industrial societies and subsidiaries in developing countries. The maquiladora are best viewed as a stage in the development process.
