ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with Mexico's new industrialization strategy and foreign trade policy. It deals with a review of the industrial policy the country followed until the 1982 crisis. World War II provided a favorable opportunity for Mexico to initiate its industrialization process based on import substitution. This initial impulse was later strengthened by deliberate promotion by the government, whose principal functions during the 1950s were to protect and finance industrial development in general and to participate directly in the production of oil and derivates, iron and steel, fertilizers, and paper. Dealing with the problems of the Mexican economy requires more than emergency programs. It was necessary to transcend the emergency with an integrated strategy to radically change the organization, and hence performance, of industry in order to avoid repetition of the vicious cycle of growth-recession.
