Cámara Nacional de la Industria de la Transformación (CANACINTRA)

The Cámara Nacional de la Industria de la Transformación (National Chamber of the Manufacturing Industry) is a Mexican public organization grouping small and medium manufacturers. It is usually portrayed as having been the most pro-government employers' organization in Mexico during the rule of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI; Institutional Revolutionary Party), at least until the early 1980s. Although it is considered a public organization, its members formally control it under a one-firm-one-vote principle. CANACINTRA was created in 1941 on the initiative of ninety-three manufacturers interested in the modification of the 1936 Law of Chambers. It was also known as the CNIT.

Formally, CANACINTRA is one of the umbrella organizations of the Confederación de Cámaras Industriales (CONCAMIN; Industrial Chambers Confederation), the industrial chamber representing big manufacturers. However, CANACINTRA actually takes different positions on economic and political issues. CANACINTRA has represented the small manufacturers that appeared during the import-substitution industrialization process in Mexico between the late 1930s and the late 1960s. It was, therefore, a strong defender of protectionist policies. In 1985 CANACINTRA opposed the country's entrance to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the predecessor of the World Trade Organization). CANACINTRA's criticisms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were moderated only after Canada's inclusion in the negotiations. During the 1990s CANACINTRA slowly shifted its protectionist position, emphasizing instead the establishment of conditions that small and medium manufacturers needed to compete in international markets: tax reforms, creation of infrastructure, and labor reforms.

See alsoMexico, Political Parties: Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); North American Free Trade Agreement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Camp, Roderic Ai. Entrepreneurs and Politics in Twentieth-Century Mexico. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

"CANACINTRA Mexico." Available from http://www.canacintradigital.com.

                          Sergio Silva-CastaÑeda