Mexico: What Some Mexican Workers Experience and How Companies Should Change

As the host country for Acme Motors there are many items that we must consider. Mexico's national GDP was $1.07 trillion in 2005 by the PPP method, which was 13^th in the world (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). The annual real GDP growth for each year can be seen in the chart below.

YearGDP Growth

2005 - 3.0%

2004 - 4.4%

2003 - 1.4%

2002 - 0.8%

2001 - -0.2%

2000 - 6.6%

(Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). As you can see Mexico has experienced tremendous growth in some years and very little in others. Industry contributes 26% of our country's GPD (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007).One interest at stake for Mexico as a country is the GDP growth that we experience from Acme Motors each year. If we were to lose Acme Motors we would suffer a huge loss that will greatly affect our country's economy.

"Mexico is highly dependent on exports to the U.S., which account for almost a quarter of the country's GDP" (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). Mexico is the most open country in the world for trade due to the various trade agreements with the United States, Canada, Europe, and many other countries (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). Mexico is dependant on trade with the United States, so it is imperative that we keep our ties good with Acme Motors as well as other MNCs that hold factories in our country (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). We are a member of the WTO (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007).

Our trade disputes with the United States are "generally settled through direct negotiations between the two countries or via WTO or North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panels" (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007).Most of the trade friction comes from agricultural products, so there is not much worry for Acme Motors (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007).

In 2005 our FDI in was $18.8 billion according to the Ministry of Economy (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). "The U.S. was once again the largest foreign investor in Mexico, accounting for 66% of reported FDI" (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2007). This once again reiterates the need for Mexico to increase and strengthen the ties with United States MNCs such as Acme Motors.

"Regulation of MNCs remains firmly within national borders" (Astill, 2007). With this fact we must take into consideration the fact that we might not be able to enforce all the laws that we have passed pertaining to the MNCs responsibility due to lack of money or experience (Astill, 2007).Even though we are responsible primarily for the regulation of MNCs within our own country, we must also consider our citizens well-being and also our environment.

When we consider our citizens, we must look at the pleas of the workers in the MNCs in our countries. There are many issues that our citizens who are workers of these MNCs experience: long hours, transportation costs and availability, and health (Colorado Technical University Online, 2006). We must strengthen our laws to include:

-Restrictions for working hours to be no longer than 12 hours.

-Transportation costs to be contributed to the workers by the MNCs that they work for to eliminate the burden on the worker's net pay.

-To provide health insurance, and care for all workers.

-To evaluate all workers for job rotation in between strenuous and health devastating jobs to jobs with less affects on health.

If we strengthen our laws, we will help our citizens in the long run by keeping them able to work for various reasons, which will in turn keep the MNCs interest in our country because the workers will be readily available.

We must also strengthen our laws to eliminate pollution from the MNCs that are in our environment. If we do not have laws that restrict emissions or dumping of chemicals into our water supply then MNCs will use our country, and eventually destroy it. Many companies have this attitude: "to invest in the Third World is to escape environmental regulations or higher taxes in their home country" ("Chapter 11", n.d.). If we strengthen our laws we will eliminate problems that occur within our country, but we must be delicate or we might lose the business of the MNCs that reside in our country.

References

Astill, K. (2007). The rough guide to multinational corporations. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from Catholic Agency for Overseas Development Web site: http://www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/rough_guides/mncs

Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. (2007, February). Background note: Mexico. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Web site: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35749.htmChapter 11: Multinational corporations in the third world. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2007, from http://www.drake.edu/artsci/PolSci/MNCs.html