Maquiladora

A maquiladora (mak-eel-uh-Dora...like the explorer girl) is a factory that’s free from the economic shackles of tariffs and duty fees in Mexico, but is run by another country, where it also exports its products (usually the U.S.). Maquiladoras came about when the U.S. said, “Hey Mexico, we’ll give you tariff and tax breaks on these factories if we can run them and bring the goods into our economy to sell to our folk...using your cheap labor! How’s that sound?” To which Mexico said, “Bueno.”

While the term was originally specific to factories in Mexico very close to the U.S. border (since the goods were then shipped over the border to the U.S.), the term has been used more broadly to describe the relationship in a maquiladora-like setup.

Maquiladora means “assembly plant.” Maquiladoras make up well over half of Mexico’s exports, and employs over a quarter of their labor force. Obviously, America’s benefitting from maquiladoras too, or else they wouldn’t be doing so well.