{"id":443495,"date":"2025-12-13T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/443495\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T01:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:40:14","slug":"mexicos-aerospace-sector-is-growing-will-it-be-undercut-in-usmca-review-aviation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/443495\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s aerospace sector is growing. Will it be undercut in USMCA review? | Aviation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monterrey, Mexico \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0In April, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the country\u2019s aerospace industry could see sustained annual growth of as much as 15 percent over the next four years, and attributed the sector\u2019s expansion to a robust local manufacturing workforce, increasing exports, and a strong presence of foreign companies.<\/p>\n

But with the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) coming up \u2013 the free-trade treaty between the three countries that helped Mexico\u2019s aerospace sector to grow and flourish \u2013 the industry\u2019s future is no longer certain.<\/p>\n

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Stakeholders warn that ensuring investment stability and strengthening labour standards are essential to protecting the sector\u2019s North American supply chain.<\/p>\n

Mexico is striving to become one of the top 10 countries in aerospace production value, a goal outlined in Plan Mexico, the country\u2019s strategic initiative to enhance global competitiveness in key sectors.<\/p>\n

As the sixth-largest supplier of aerospace parts to the US, the industry has benefited significantly from the USMCA, which fostered regional supply chain integration, said Monica Lugo, director of institutional relations at the consulting firm PRODENSA.<\/p>\n

However, the integration is no guarantee of business continuing to grow as the country is at an \u201cunprecedented moment\u201d with US President Donald Trump and his wide-ranging tariff policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lugo, a former USMCA negotiator, said that recent tariffs on materials like steel and aluminium<\/a> \u2014 critical to the aerospace sector\u2014 have eroded trust in the US as a reliable partner. She predicts that if current conditions continue, the sector risks losing capital, investments and jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving this great uncertainty \u2013 one day it\u2019s on, the next it\u2019s off, who knows tomorrow \u2013 and based on no specific criteria, but rather on the president\u2019s mood, creates chaos and severely damages the country and the economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On December 4, Trump suggested the US might let the USMCA expire next year, or negotiate a new deal. This follows comments by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to US news outlet Politico that the administration is considering separate deals with Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

A booming aerospace sector<\/p>\n

The Mexican aerospace market is valued at $11.2bn, and is expected to more than double to $22.7bn by 2029, Sheinbaum said, citing data from the Mexican Aerospace Industry Federation (FEMIA). Home to global companies like Bombardier, Safran, Airbus, and Honeywell, Mexico has established itself as a key player in the global aerospace market and is now the world\u2019s twelfth-largest exporter of aerospace components.<\/p>\n

Marco Antonio Del Prete, secretary of sustainable development in Queretaro, attributes this success in part to heavy investment in education and training. In 2005, the Queretaro government promised Canada\u2019s Bombardier that it would invest in education and set up the Aeronautical University, which now offers programmes ranging from technical diplomas to master\u2019s degrees in aerospace manufacturing and engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Bombardier\u2019s arrival, an educational and training system was created that allows us to develop talent in a very efficient way, let\u2019s say, fast track,\u201d Del Prete told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Bombardier has served as an anchor, propelling Queretaro\u2019s rise as a high-skilled manufacturing hub for parts and components.<\/p>\n

While the Bombardier plant in Queretaro originally focused on wiring harnesses, it has evolved to specialise in complex aerostructures, including the rear fuselage for the Global 7500, Bombardier\u2019s ultra-long-range business jet, and key components for the Challenger 3500, the mid-sized business jet.<\/p>\n

Marco Antonio Carrillo, a research professor at the Autonomous University of Queretaro (UAQ), pointed out that the area\u2019s wide educational offerings have cultivated a powerful workforce, which has gained significant attention from aeroplane makers, mainly from the US, Canada and France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis development [of Queretaro] has been, if you look at it in terms of time, truly explosive,\u201d Carrillo said.<\/p>\n

Mexico also aims to join France and the US as the third country capable of fully assembling an engine for Safran.<\/p>\n

But the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union, which represents more than 600,000 workers in Canada and the US, is worried that progress could lead to more advanced manufacturing and assembly work to eventually shift to Mexico, given the local investment in aeronautical universities and training.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now they\u2019re [Mexican workers] doing more entry-level type things, but our concern is that later on, larger pieces of the aerospace operation will go to Mexico,\u201d Peter Greenberg, the IAM\u2019s international affairs director, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

High-skilled, low-cost workforce<\/p>\n

Of the three countries in the USMCA agreement, Mexico\u2019s biggest attraction has been its low-cost manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Edgar Buendia and Mario Duran Bustamante, economics professors at the Rosario Castellanos National University, cite Mexico\u2019s low labour costs and geographical proximity to the US as the country\u2019s key advantages. This is partly why the US has intensified pressure on the Mexican government, including during the initial USMCA negotiations in 2017, to raise wages to level the playing field and reduce unfair competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost US companies have incentives to move their production here in Mexico, given the [low] wages and the geographic location. So, to prevent that from happening, the United States is pressuring Mexico to raise labour standards, ensure freedom of association, and improve working conditions,\u201d Buendia told Al Jazeera, things that will benefit Mexican workers even as employer-dominated labour groups worry that they may lose their advantage.<\/p>\n

The IAM originally opposed the USMCA\u2019s predecessor, NAFTA. Greenberg said that while they acknowledge USMCA will continue, US and Canadian workers \u201cwould probably be perfectly happy\u201d if the agreement ended as the NAFTA deal had led to plants being shuttered and workers being laid off as jobs moved from the US and Canada to low-cost Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a need for stronger incentives to keep work in the United States and Canada. We want to see the wages in Mexico go up so that it doesn\u2019t become automatically a place where companies go to because they know they will have lower wages and workers who do not have any bargaining power or strong units,\u201d Greenberg added.<\/p>\n

Under Sheinbaum\u2019s Morena party, Mexico has raised the minimum wage from 88 pesos ($4.82) in 2018 to 278.8 pesos ($15.30) in 2025, with the rate in municipalities bordering the US reaching 419.88 pesos ($23). On December 4, Sheinbaum announced a 13 percent rise in the minimum wage \u2014 and 5 percent for the border zone\u2014 set to begin in January 2026.<\/p>\n

Despite these increases and the competitiveness of wages in the aerospace sector, researchers agree that a significant wage gap persists between Mexican workers and their US and Canadian counterparts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wage gap is definitely abysmal,\u201d said Javier Salinas, a scholar at the UAQ Labor Center, specialising in labour relations in the aerospace industry. \u201cThe [aerospace] industry average is between 402 [Mexican pesos] and 606, with the highest daily wage being 815. [But] 815, converted to US dollars, is less than $40 for a single workday.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, Salinas estimates that a worker in the US earns an average of about 5,500 pesos, or $300, per day.<\/p>\n

\u2018Protection unions\u2019<\/p>\n

The USMCA required Mexico to end \u201cprotection unions\u201d, a longstanding practice where companies sign agreements with corrupt union leaders \u2014 known as \u201csindicatos charros\u201d \u2014 without the workers\u2019 knowledge. This system has been used to prevent authentic union organising, as these sindicatos often serve the interests of the company and government authorities rather than the workers.<\/p>\n

Salinas argues that despite the 2019 labour reform, it remains difficult for independent unions to emerge. Meanwhile, \u201cprotection unions\u201d continue to keep wages low to maintain competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut imagine, a competitiveness based on precarious or impoverished working conditions. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the way forward,\u201d Salinas said.<\/p>\n

Even with new labour courts and laws mandating collective bargaining, organising in Mexico remains dangerous. Workers attempting to create independent unions frequently face firing, threats, or being blacklisted by companies.<\/p>\n

Humberto Huitron, a lawyer specialising in collective labour law and trade unionism, explains that Mexican workers, including in the aerospace sector, often lack effective representation. \u201cThere\u2019s discrimination during hiring or recruitment. They don\u2019t hire workers who are dismissed for union activism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Beyond demanding that Mexico enforce its labour reform, the IAM is calling for the expansion and strengthening of the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), which allows the US to take action against factories if they fail to uphold freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n

While not in the aerospace sector, the US recently invoked the RRM against a wine producer in Queretaro. Previous such actions in the state had been limited to the automotive sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knows exactly what is going on in all of the factories in Mexico,\u201d Greenberg said.<\/p>\n

According to FEMIA, there are 386 aerospace companies operating in 19 states. These include 370 specialised plants that generate 50,000 direct jobs and 190,000 indirect jobs.<\/p>\n

Del Prete, however, assured Al Jazeera that, in Queretaro, unions are independent and \u201cthey have their own organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salinas points out that in Queretaro, there has not been a strike in decades, adding, \u201cImagine the control of the workforce: 29, 30 years without a single strike in the private sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monterrey, Mexico \u2013\u00a0In April, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the country\u2019s aerospace industry could see sustained annual growth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":443496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[13021,64,438,69,79,3095,13790,38164,1612,748,2222,80,8304,67,132,68,72,28558],"class_list":{"0":"post-443495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-aviation","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-business-and-economy","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-features","14":"tag-international-trade","15":"tag-labour-rights","16":"tag-latin-america","17":"tag-manufacturing","18":"tag-mexico","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-trade-war","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-canada","25":"tag-workers-rights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115709714469876780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}