The National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry (Index) announced that it will open three representative offices in the United States, in the cities of New York, Washington and Los Angeles.
For more than 60 years, the maquiladora and manufacturing industry has been one of the main economic engines of Mexico, generating more than 60% of the country’s exports and 84% of foreign trade with the United States.
Luis Manuel Hernández, president of the Index, commented that the new offices will have the objective of attracting investments in Mexico, generating business opportunities and lobbying in the United States on matters that benefit the sector.
“We see quite well bringing a message of unity from the companies that are in Mexico, something that allows us to show our strengths,” Hernández said at a press conference on Thursday.
As a precedent, the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) announced the opening of a permanent office in Washington, DC, to closely and continuously monitor Mexico’s economic relations with the United States and Canada. The first objective of this office was to follow up on the ratification of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
Moisés Kalach, then coordinator of the Strategic Advisory Council for International Negotiations of the CCE, announced that the office began operating at the beginning of 2019 and that it would be directed by Sergio Gómez Lora, general director of the IQOM consultancy. Kalach commented that the office will focus on investment issues, international trade, clients and suppliers in trilateral relations.
For his part, Herminio Blanco, president of IQOM, also said then that the idea arose after the impact of Donald Trump’s statements and policies on the Mexican economy, both as a candidate and as President of the United States.
The operations of the IMMEX companies represented an economic spill of 140,780 million dollars in 2021, considering salaries and wages, social security contributions, benefits, as well as the consumption of supplies and services in the national market. Likewise, this industry generates 3 million direct formal jobs.
The accumulated amount of IMMEX exports increased 12.5% in 2021.