Posted on 20/12/2001

Corporates Join China In Race - To Bottom
by William Greider

China is sucking away Mexico's jobs. And jobs from Taiwan and South Korea,
Singapore and Thailand, Central and South America, and even from Japan.
Globalization is entering a fateful new stage, in which the competitive
perils intensify for the low-wage developing countries much like the
continuing pressures on high-wage manufacturing workers in the United
States and other advanced economies. In the "race to the bottom," China is
defining the new bottom, in to which the `global economy' is falling.

This turn of events is difficult to see against the gathering threat of
global recession, but in the long run it will be more meaningful. As one
economy after another sinks into contraction, output subsides nearly
everywhere--more layoffs and closed factories, more unsold goods. So the
migration of production to China will not become fully apparent until after
the recovery, when some of the closed factories never reopen. While it is
impossible to know the full dimensions at this point, the downdraft on
wages and competing economies induced by China's ascendancy may produce a
terrible reckoning. For many poor nations that thought they had gained a
foothold on the ladder, the reversal will be quite ugly.

This is the "treadmill" that ensnares developing countries--writ large. If
they attempt to boost wages or allow workers to organize unions or begin to
deal with social concerns like health or the environment, the system
punishes them. The factories move to some other country where those costs
of production do not exist.

In Mexico, the manufacturing wage level rose a bit in the last couple of
years and is now around $1.50 an hour. In China, it is 20-25 cents an hour.
After NAFTA, Mexico's manufacturing base expanded robustly year after
year--except that most new factories are located in the maquiladora export
zones along the US border and in the interior, essentially separate from
the Mexican economy and largely producing components for US multinationals.
Yet Mexico may already have peaked as an emerging player in global
manufacturing. Its manufacturing base is now shrinking, due first to the US
recession but also because the factories are leaving. American companies
that were cheerleaders for NAFTA back in 1993 are shutting down and moving
to greener--that is, cheaper--pastures. An American source in multinational
business explained the trend: "When you consider the wage difference,
moving the factory, which was usually leased anyway, or moving the more
value-added product lines is a veritable no-brainer, if you want to
increase profits. I expect this to intensify over the next few years,
leaving considerable excess capacity and unemployment, particularly in
northern Mexico but also in Central and South America, and the Caribbean."

During the past year, employment in the maquiladora industries fell by 12
percent, more than 170,000 jobs from the peak. The number seems modest by
American standards, but those jobs have been the core of positive growth.
The maquiladora sector produces about one-third of the nation's
hard-currency income from abroad--the dollars that support its foreign
borrowing--and so its loss could contribute to yet another currency crisis.
The export-zone wages may seem pitiful to Americans (and to many Mexicans),
but they are virtually the only bright spot in job development.

Poignant evidence of Mexico's dilemma is the fact that the government has
slapped antidumping duties of 189 percent on electronics imports from
China. Electronics was supposed to be one of Mexico's bright spots,
remember, but Mexico now claims China is exporting its surplus output at a
price below what it costs in
China. Guadalajara, a production center for dozens of US technology
companies,was down 16 percent in exports and lost 15,000 jobs in the first
half of the year, according to Business Week. When US steel companies
pursue anti-dumping remedies, the free-trade orthodoxy disparages them as
backward protectionists, blocking the future for poorer countries. But
Mexico is still very poor itself and feeling the same squeeze. Mexico's top
three steel producers, incidentally, are all in grave financial trouble,
like the American companies, and for the same reason. Worldwide
overcapacity drives down steel prices and rewards the lowest-wage
producer--China.

In Mexico, other shrinking sectors include shoes, tires, apparel and auto
parts. The Big Three are moving auto components to China from both Mexico
and the United States. General Electric, which over the years has moved a
lot of US jobs to Mexico, is now moving production of mini-bar
refrigerators from there to China. An executive of SCI Systems, which
employs 10,000 in Guadalajara, told Business Week: "I'm an absolute
believer in this country, but anything that is really price-sensitive is
considering moving lock, stock and barrel to Asia."