Mexico stifling growth of manufacturing: Canacero

Oct 26, 2011 | 04:33 PM | Stephen Downer

Tags  Mexico, economy, manufacturing, steel, Canacero, Deacero, Raul Gutiérrez Muguerza, stephen downer

MEXICO CITY — The head of Mexico’s steel association claims the government isn’t doing enough to stimulate manufacturing.

"Mexico has great potential, and manufacturing has tremendous possibilities as an engine of growth and generator of jobs," Raúl Gutiérrez Muguerza, president of Cámara Nacional de la Industria del Herrio y del Acero (Canacero), said at a business conference in Querétaro, central Mexico.

But in the past 10 years, the manufacturing sector’s gross national product (GNP) has shrunk by 3 percentage points, 700,000 jobs have been lost and 15,000 manufacturing companies have closed, he said, noting that Mexico’s trade deficit with China reached $41 billion in 2010, while opportunities to participate more in the U.S. market—where Mexico exports 80 percent of its merchandise—have been lost.....