Due in large part to the US-China trade war, Taiwanese supply chains continue to relocate from China and some manufacturers have increased the rate at which they have invested in Mexico to align their operations with the needs of customers and to comply with US policy.
However, setting up manufacturing plants in Mexico is not without its complications, including the language barrier, different cultures, local regulations and finding qualified staff. Accumulating talent with proficiency in Spanish is the first step to developing the market in Mexico, and indeed Latin America as a whole.
WHY MEXICO
Mexico is a good location for three reasons:
First, its shared border with the US. Second, there are relatively low production and labor costs. Third, Mexico is a signatory of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), so it is covered by the zero-tariff policy while manufacturing within the area, allowing Mexico to play an important role in the US’ automotive market.
To meet the requirements of manufacturing in the US, Mexico has become the best choice for Taiwan’s technology firms to invest and develop.
For this reason, a delegation of representatives from 20 Taiwanese companies, assisted by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Mexico, visited Mexico, and discussed the Interoceanic Corridor Project — strongly promoted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — with companies hoping to explore investment opportunities to set up plants in Mexico and along the corridor.
The project involves the construction of a railway network in southern Mexico and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to connect all ports between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and to build 10 industrial parks along the way and infrastructure for local residents.
The US-China trade war aside, customers’ needs was the main reason that companies like Pegatron Corp and Foxconn Technology Group moved production out of China.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains and caused a surge in sea and air freight transportation costs, making short supply chain and nearshoring a trend.
Moreover, with geopolitical conflicts such as increasing tensions between China and the US, suppliers had no choice but to review their production lines.
Also, low-cost labor is the best pull for assembly lines, and that is why Mexico can draw Taiwanese investment. Moving the supply chain from the East to the West would soon become a global trend.
Under the call of Tesla, many domestic electronics foundries have invested in Mexico, and Taiwan’s Tesla suppliers also set up factories in Mexico to seize the soaring opportunities of the electric vehicle market.
Foxconn Technology’s Mexico plant was the largest manufacturer there for producing servers and networking products. Today, with increasing supply to Tesla, automotive products would be another major driver of growth.
The establishment of a plant in Mexico is not only about manufacturing costs, but also related to national security.
GLOBAL LANGUAGE
After Chinese, Spanish is the second-most spoken language globally, with 490 million native speakers. The Latin American economy has kept developing stably and has been expected to become the area with the most potential for development around the world. Thus, learning Spanish can bring more opportunities for jobs, tourism, lifestyle and social networks.
I have been bringing students to companies in Latin America for internships for many years, and I found that large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises needed talent with Spanish proficiency to expand their business.
CAREER PPORTUNITIES
Few people learn Spanish in Taiwan, and as a result, proficiency in the language affords one a competitive edge in the workplace and in daily life.
In recent years, sub-replacement fertility and societal value transformation have had a great impact on many professions like languages and humanities. Some specialized departments have closed in Taiwan, but talent in these professions is still necessary.
The Ministry of Education should motivate schools to keep language departments and set up scholarships to encourage students to study abroad, aiming to nourish talent in Spanish language and culture.
Besides studying the basics of language — like listening, reading, writing and speaking — learning the history and culture of the country is also of paramount importance, enabling us to deepen our communication with partners and expand economic and trade relations.
Ho Kuo-shih is an associate professor in Providence University’s Department of Spanish Language and Literature.
Translated by Chien Yan-ru
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
A few weeks ago in Kaohsiung, tech mogul turned political pundit Robert Tsao (曹興誠) joined Western Washington University professor Chen Shih-fen (陳時奮) for a public forum in support of Taiwan’s recall campaign. Kaohsiung, already the most Taiwanese independence-minded city in Taiwan, was not in need of a recall. So Chen took a different approach: He made the case that unification with China would be too expensive to work. The argument was unusual. Most of the time, we hear that Taiwan should remain free out of respect for democracy and self-determination, but cost? That is not part of the usual script, and
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at
RSS