The special economic zones in Mexico: from public policy to a repealed project

This article addresses the initiative to develop special economic zones in southern Mexico, a project that, despite promising a series of benefits in terms of investments and job creation for this region, the poorest in the country, was canceled by the federal government that came into office in December 2018. Through an exhaustive review of the available bibliographic material, and based on the hypothesis that the possible positive impacts of this public policy outweigh the negative ones, the objective of this work is precisely to analyze what would be the relevance of reestablishing this project. For this purpose, and after reflecting in the introductory section on development asymmetries in Mexico, the first section addresses the characteristics that define the special economic zones promoted at international level. The second and third sections approach, respectively, the purposes and strategies in promoting these areas in the country, and the beginning of these economic units, considering the stages established and the specific zones that were intended to be activated. The reasons that were put forward to cancel this project are set out afterwards, and finally the conclusions and recommendations are presented.