by NotPhil

A visit to any one of a dozen border cities in Mexico contradicts the notion of any Mexican “win” on NAFTA. Polluted, overcrowded and poor, these sprawling, swollen factory centers have remained mere assembly points for finished goods made for the American market. Low-wage production lines don’t build a strong economy, and the more than 3,000 maquiladoras spread along the Texas, Arizona and California borders have failed to generate a healthy cohort of subcontractors — such as developed in Detroit around the auto assembly plants — that would add value to Mexican manufactured products.