Back

COMEXI-PCNS webinar series 2024: Nearshoring boom: lessons from Mexico and Morocco

May 30, 2024
Related topics: 

Nearshoring in Mexico

Nearshoring in Mexico presents both importance and challenges for businesses. The country's proximity to the United States, its largest trading partner, offers strategic advantages such as reduced transportation costs and shorter lead times, making it an attractive destination for nearshoring operations. Additionally, Mexico boasts a skilled labor force, particularly in industries like automotive, aerospace, and electronics manufacturing, which align well with the needs of many nearshoring companies. Moreover, Mexico benefits from trade agreements like the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement), providing preferential access to key markets. However, nearshoring in Mexico also faces challenges, including security concerns in certain regions, bureaucratic hurdles, and regulatory complexities that may impede the ease of doing business. Infrastructure constraints, such as inadequate transportation networks and energy supply, can increase operational costs and pose logistical challenges for companies. Addressing these challenges while leveraging Mexico's strategic advantages is crucial for maximizing the potential of nearshoring in the country.

Nearshoring in Morocco

Nearshoring in Morocco is significant due to its proximity to Europe. This stability, coupled with developed infrastructure and efficient logistics, facilitates seamless operations and reduces investor uncertainties. It offers advantages like reduced transportation costs and access to a skilled workforce, particularly in the engineering and IT sectors. Trade agreements and government investments in infrastructure support nearshoring activities, making Morocco attractive for European companies to optimize their supply chains. The country's political stability, developed infrastructure, and efficient logistics bolster its appeal to investors. Macro factors such as trade openness and stable exchange rates further enhance its attractiveness. Moreover, Morocco boasts solid legal frameworks that prioritize and protect business rights and economic incentives, ensuring a stable and predictable business environment. However, challenges persist, including skill mismatches, technology transfer, and SME upgrading. Addressing these, alongside pressing concerns like achieving carbon neutrality and digitalizing the economy, is essential for Morocco to fully leverage its potential as a competitive nearshoring hub and sustain its appeal to foreign investors.

Importance of the webinar

In this context, the exchange of experiences and lessons learned between Mexico and Morocco is instrumental in bolstering their nearshoring opportunities and overcoming challenges in this domain. By sharing insights into their respective nearshoring endeavors, both countries can leverage each other's strengths and address common obstacles more effectively. Through collaboration and knowledge sharing, COMEXI and PCNS can contribute to identifying innovative solutions, actionable strategies, and the maximal capitalization of trends in the global nearshoring landscape. This exchange can also result in ideas that foster mutual growth and competitiveness in the nearshoring sector, that help drive economic development and create new opportunities for both nations.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Download PDF
    Relations between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa: What is the potential for trade and foreign direct investment?
    Authors
    Rim Berahab
    February 1, 2017
    An analysis of trade relations between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa indicates a growing volume of trade, reflecting a continuation of stimulated trade relations. A similar trend is observed in foreign direct investment (FDI), which has continued to grow in recent years, reflecting Morocco's determination to become a major player in the development of the African continent. This Policy Brief first presents trends in inter-regional trade between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa, focus ...
  • Download PDF
    Relations entre le Maroc et l’Afrique subsaharienne : Quels potentiels pour le commerce et les investissements directs étrangers ?
    Authors
    Rim Berahab
    February 1, 2017
    L’analyse des relations commerciales entre le Maroc et l’Afrique subsaharienne fait ressortir un volume des échanges croissants, reflétant ainsi une dynamisation continue des leurs relations commerciales. Une tendance similaire est observée au niveau des investissements directs étrangers, qui ne cessent de croître au cours des dernières années, traduisant la volonté du Maroc à devenir un acteur majeur dans le développement du continent africain. Ce Policy Brief présente dans un prem ...
  • The Brazilian Debt Hangover
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    January 25, 2017
    In previous pieces, we have analyzed the run up to the still-ongoing Brazilian recession as a combination of factors. Given an “anemia” of productivity increases, an appetite for public spending without prioritization led to a condition of fiscal “obesity”. The external factors that provided for a boom in the new millennium, notwithstanding underlying vulnerabilities, have dissipated. The economic policy adopted as a response to the growth decline aggravated those vulnerabilities. O ...
  • Download PDF
    Cooperation Against Transnational Crime: The Case of the Zone of Peace and Cooperation of the South Atlantic
    Authors
    Mostapha Mouzouni
    January 23, 2017
    Cooperation against transnational crime in the North Atlantic region is highly institutionalized in the framework of regional organizations that are reinforced by ancestral identities. Europol and the U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force-South are exemplary in this regard. The South Atlantic region, however, is less institutionalized, making the study of such cooperation a difficult exercise. With the exception of some actions initiated by specialized international organizations, there ...
  • Download PDF
    Coopération contre la criminalité transnationale: Cas de la Zone de paix et de coopération de l’Atlantique Sud
    Authors
    Mostapha Mouzouni
    January 23, 2017
    Alors que la menaces, que la criminalité transnationale organisée présentait dans les années 70 était considérée comme étant secondaire, le changement de sa nature, l’augmentation de ses risques et sa stigmatisation de plus en plus soutenue comme étant responsable des instabilités politiques et de certains conflits internes, a poussé la communauté internationale à s’inscrire dans une logique de confrontation avec ses aspects les plus menaçants à la sécurité internationale. Or curieu ...
  • Download PDF
    New Space : l’impact de la révolution numérique sur les acteurs et les politiques spatiales en Europe
    Authors
    Laurence Nardon
    January 17, 2017
    Tout comme la plupart des industries « traditionnelles », l’industrie spatiale est depuis plusieurs années confrontée aux défis du numérique. L’industrie spatiale européenne fait ainsi face à de nouveaux acteurs venus du numérique, principalement américains, start-ups ou géant de la Silicon Valley tels que les GAFA1. Ces derniers utilisent de nouvelles méthodes telles que le recours accru aux financements privés, des cycles de décision et de production plus rapides, un rééquilibrage ...
  • Download PDF
    Multilatéralisme : quelle résonance (géo) politique pour l’acier ?
    Authors
    Yves Jégourel
    January 12, 2017
    Si les produits énergétiques sont de toute évidence au cœur des relations géopolitiques, d’autres « commodities » ne peuvent être négligées pour expliquer certaines évolutions de la scène économique et politique internationale. L’acier compte parmi celles-ci et ce, depuis le XIX siècle. Qu’en est-il aujourd’hui ? Dans un contexte d’une demande interne atone, l’expansion considérable de la production chinoise mais également de ses exportations pèsent lourdement sur la santé des sidér ...
  • Download PDF
    Multilateralism: what is the political (geo) resonance for steel?
    Authors
    Yves Jégourel
    January 12, 2017
    While energy products are clearly at the heart of geopolitical relations, other commodities should be taken into account to explain certain changes in the international economic and political environment. This is the case for steel since the 19th century. What about today? In a context of sluggish domestic demand, the considerable expansion of Chinese production and exports weigh heavily on the health of steelmakers, which are "historic" producers. Antidumping measures have thus bee ...
  • Download PDF
    Combattants terroristes étrangers : Le temps des retours
    Authors
    Abdelhak Bassou
    January 12, 2017
    La défaite des organisations terroristes au Moyen-Orient est attendue même s’elle prendra encore quelques temps, tellement Daech et Jabhat Fath Al Sham montrent de la résistance. La première du fait de ses équipements et de ses tactiques de guérillas, la seconde du fait que depuis qu’elle n’est plus une filiale d’Al-Qaeda a pu rallier d’autres groupes syriens. Les deux organisations résistent également parce qu’elles sont renforcées par des milliers de Combattants Terroristes Etrang ...
  • Download PDF
    Al Qaeda vs. Daech in the Sahel: What to expect?
    Authors
    Ihssane Guennoun
    Abdelhak Bassou
    January 5, 2017
    Multiple players that destabilize the countries in the region characterize the terrorist landscape in the Sahel. Despite the fact that each terrorist group has particular areas of action and zones of influence, nevertheless two main ideological tendencies confront each other in the Sahel: on one hand, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and on the other, the Islamic State (IS) organization (also known as Daesh). However, some groups continue to act independently of the allegiances they ...