The sophistiction of Mexico's economy and commerce

Mexican commerce has been isolated from the technological advances that occurred in Mexico. In the rest of the industrialized world, in the first eighty years of this century. Mexico did not open its domestic market to global competition until the early 1980's. Until then, prohibitively high tariffs on imports allowed the Mexican businessman to sell low quality goods to a captured market without caring too much about operational efficiency or marketing strategies. Cheap wages also supported a blasé attitude toward technology and efficiency. "Just add more cheap labor" was the traditional solution to greater productivity. In brief, the Mexican businessman was protected from the need to modernize in order to compete. As a result, Mexico has a lot of entrepreneurial catching up to do in today's global marketplace. I continue to be impressed and surprised with how quickly this nation's business community has adapted to the rapid transfer from domestic monopolization to highly competitive international trade.