The current pace of development and absorption of manufacturing and warehousing space in El Paso reveals just how closely the local economy is linked to that of its sister city across the border, Ciudad Juárez. Mexico’s maquiladora system allows foreign companies to produce and export materials to that company’s home country, largely on a duty- and tariff-free basis. When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed in the mid-1990s, maquiladora activity saw its largest historical increase while still facing considerable competition from China for foreign investment. But when American manufacturers realized that outsourcing production to China didn’t translate to more efficient supply chains, they once again looked toward Mexico, which also boasted strong supplies of affordable labor. With the United States now locked in a trade dispute with China, the economic development initiatives offered by the current Mexican Presidential Administration and the threat of a drastically renegotiated NAFTA agreement having passed, American companies are beginning to return to Mexico. Ciudad Juárez is among the Mexican cities benefitting most from this activity, and it is translating to greater demand for storage and distribution space in El Paso. Many maquiladora companies count end users in southwestern U.S. markets as significant …
