Contrary to the triumphalist rhetoric that describes the automotive industry as a lever for both regional development in North America and industrial upgrading in Mexico, this article argues that the formation of the Mexico–U.S. automotive complex has instead been consolidated on the basis of longstanding processes of uneven regional development. To make this argument, the paper examines how global economic restructuring, trade policies, domestic economic development processes, transnational firm decision making and the maintenance of the geopolitical border have reproduced extreme wage differences between the United States and Mexico, resulting in the creation of a regional automotive sector that is both highly integrated and highly unequal. In this scenario, both nations are home to profoundly different industrial landscapes: the U.S. hosts the highest value-added links of the production chain, monopolizing processes of innovation and scientific and technological knowledge production, while in contrast, Mexico manufactures the most labour intense and lowest value-added links of the automotive production chain. From this perspective, the Mexican economy can be essentially understood as an export manufacturing platform which derives its ‘competitiveness’ from the aggressive industry maintenance of low wages.

与将汽车工业描述为北美区域发展和墨西哥产业升级杠杆的必胜主义言论相反，本文认为，墨西哥-美国汽车联合体的形成是在长期过程的基础上巩固的。区域发展不平衡。为了提出这一论点，本文考察了全球经济结构调整、贸易政策、国内经济发展过程、跨国公司决策和地缘政治边界的维护如何再现美国和墨西哥之间的极端工资差异，从而导致建立高度一体化和高度不平等的区域汽车行业。在这种情况下，两国都拥有截然不同的工业格局：美国 拥有生产链中附加值最高的环节，垄断了创新和科技知识生产的过程，而相比之下，墨西哥制造了汽车生产链中劳动密集度最高、附加值最低的环节。从这个角度来看，墨西哥经济本质上可以被理解为一个出口制造平台，它的“竞争力”来自于积极的行业维持低工资。