[SNE] 2019-2024 Northern Border Program (9th part)

The free zone existed in Ciudad Juarez at the beginning of the 20th century, and analysis of economic development in Ciudad Juárez and COLEF began in 2007. In 2009, a group of businessmen promoted the project again before the government of Felipe Calderón, who said that He liked it and was convinced of its viability, but that in the center of the country, he would be blocked and, therefore, he would not even subject it to consideration, then Enrique Peña Nieto promised it in his 2011 electoral campaign, and failed to comply (worse, taxes) Today AMLO, after promising it in the campaign, exposes Mexico and the US will comply.

The truth is that a differential treatment, in a presumably democratic and republican country, is not well seen. The 2 great legal guarantees that are aspired here are equality and certainty. And the free zone without temporality does not comply any of these.

Other areas of the country can adduce reasons to be treated in such a way. The least have to stabilize. Others that more for its potential spills for the Country. The border, from the point of view of AMLO, is to inhibit migration to the United States. For its local promoters, it is to enhance the regional economy in a supra ordinary way.

But in the end, the relevant thing is to know the impacts. Places with Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales and Ciudad Juarez at least, are far from the center. COLEF in 2007, stated that the total consumption in Ciudad Juarez was mainly imported and only a small part came from the interior of the country. Therefore, a free zone in the city would not affect the interior of the country. The study should be updated, but the expectation is that it will be the same.

The free zone with no taxes will imply the sacrifice of government income of the least obtained. Import taxes contribute barely x% of the country's tax revenues. But others will exalt, when exercising economic activity on the Mexican side, even if they go down (as the program suggests), such as ISR and VAT. This case, as an analogy, can be seen in the homologation of gasoline at the border, when PEMEX in 2002 decided to sacrifice price for volume, provoking marriages by more.

(continue at 10th part)