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Multinational Capital and Free Trade Zones

Multinational Capital and Free Trade Zones

A new hegemonic regime brought about by the internationalization of capital has created an economic situation in which free trade zones are becoming the locus of exploitation and the oppression of workers (Cravey, 1998). The emerging regime is characterized by the dominance of international capital over domestic capital and the state. The new export-led factory regime created by free trade zoning is a regime in which manufacturing and production jobs have exited the First World and then relocated in either the Second or Third Worlds where labor is cheap and human capital plentiful (Kopinak, 1996).

Free trade zones, created by treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have been promoted by their supporters as capable of spurring economic development in poor countries, leading to greater employment opportunities for workers, and ultimately resulting in improvement in working conditions (Kopinak, 1996). Many of the new factories, universally known as "maguiladoras," have become a study in worker exploitation, oppression, and even brutalization (Cravey, 1998).

Some believe that a new industrial paradigm will gradually emerge and that maquiladoras will become flexible, with multi-skilled workforces, and less hierarchical management styles. Others, including Kopinak (1996) and Cravey (1998), maintain that if such a shift is to emerge, there are no signs that this is occurring. Wherever they are located, the maquiladoras have been seen as structuring labor and labor policies according to gender issues, offering limited economic opportunities to workers, and doing little to advance the rights of workers (Gruben, 2001).

In Sri Lanka, where a free trade zones has been established for some time, workers in export-oriented factories are routinely exploited. They receive low pay, are pressured to work overtime, exposed to unsafe and difficult working cond...

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Multinational Capital and Free Trade Zones. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:55, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1694497.html