Doing Business in Mexico Yet? Business Start-up Opportunities in Yucatan, Mexico

Thinking of doing business in Mexico? You need to know the ins and outs of setting up shop in Yucatan! Read this overview of doing business in Mexico!

In a city of an estimated population of 1 million to 1.7 million people, Merida Yucatan and the surrounding areas provides a unique opportunity for the entrepreneur. With the 2012 elections nearing the current P.R.I. government is facilitating and supporting any new projects that would bring manufacturing and employment to the Yucatan.

Over-Educated and Under-Employed

Yucatan is suffering an unemployment level of about 10% and a huge pool of over-educated young college graduates that are unemployed, under-employed or over-qualified for their current employment.

Merida is both a medical center and an educational center for the entire region and graduates are a glut of professional level graduates with little opportunity for immediate employment. Yet students come from hundreds of miles to study in one of Merida’s many universities looking for that dream opportunity for a better life than they can find in their home towns or villages.

Unfortunately, the economic realities and the Mexican Government’s policies have a direct effect on those opportunities.

Yucatan is the fourth poorest state in Mexico, with limited economic opportunities. It has the highest birth-rate in all of Mexico with 3.8 kids per woman and therefore plenty of mouths to feed, and lots of people hungry for good jobs. People doing business in Mexico, new business start ups and opportunities could serve this much under-served demographic that has tripled since the 1970’s.

Northern Mexico has experience much growth since NAFTA but Yucatan is in the far south and only recently has begun to realize its potential through shipping via Progreso yet it remains in its early stages of its potential. The government currently will expedite permits, approvals, roads, electrical services, etc for new ventures that create jobs and re-habilitate old factories.

Yucatan is Great for a Start-up Business!

The Opening of Trade and the End of Mexico’s Protectionism

Mexico has had an anti-dumping tariffs against products manufactured in China in an attempt to protect Mexican manufacturers since the 1990’s but more recently has renegotiated these tariffs in order to avoid WTO sanctions. In 2008, China and Mexico signed the Transitional Agreement on Trade Remedies.

Mexico agreed to eliminate anti-dumping duties imposed on China and Mexico was allowed to impose tariffs on items with duties ranging from 60% and 350% on certain items and these tariffs are slated to be eliminated in December, 2011.

It will be difficult for Mexican manufacturers to transition from having a monopoly on production with little or no competition to one capable of competing against the subsidized manufacturing of China. This opening up of commerce with China will bring onto the market products that are varied and affordable to the everyday lower and middle class Mexican that has endured a limited choice of merchandise that has been at a high, and often unaffordable, price.

We, in the USA, have seen how well we have fared attempting to compete with China’s subsidized production, and for that fact, Mexico’s cheap work force. The US has lost its manufacturing edge and has seen a major transition away from manufacturing.

Mexico’s advantage is its proximity. There are a number of US firms that are tiring of doing business in China, and the Mexican Government eagerly supports new factories in an attempt to help win the contract manufacturing competition with China.

Eco-tourism in Mexico not only offers adventures and experiences to green tourists but to tourists that are not interested in the typical tourist traps it is an untapped business opportunity that investors are beginning to take heed to!

Additional Reading and Resources for Doing Business in Mexico!

- Earlier Oil Spill Disaster of Yucatan Read more on how the deep water horizon of the BP oil spill compares to the 1979’s Ixtoc 1 oil spill disaster in Yucatan waters in the State of Campeche.

Return from Doing Business in Mexico to Yucatan-Life.com

Learn about Yucateco Business Characteristics

Return from Doing Business Mexico to Merida