Posted on 03/10/2020 6:47:48 AM PDT by NobleFree
The USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) is the new North American trade agreement and is commonly considered to be the replacement of NAFTA. It indeed carries on much of the legacy of the earlier agreement.
However, as an agreement updated for the 2020s and beyond, USMCA is set to provide significant benefits to the nearshore outsourcing industry throughout North America. In this article, NearShore Technology discusses how USMCA promotes nearshoring for American companies in all industries.
The USMCA was negotiated in order to replace NAFTA, which had been in place since 1994. While the Trump administration negotiated the new agreement in 2018, it was finally approved by the U.S. Senate and signed into law in the U.S. in January 2020. The original NAFTA agreement was primarily focused on the elimination of tariffs on various agricultural and manufactured goods.
The USMCA maintains much of the basic framework of NAFTA while updating provisions for specific industries, including automobile manufacturing and dairy production. Some of the most important provisions of the USMCA address intellectual property protections for digital products that were not addressed in NAFTA.
In addition to generally promoting trade between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the USMCA cuts off many loopholes that Asian nations used under NAFTA to access U.S. markets through Mexico to the detriment of Mexican nearshoring professionals. In addition to restricting preferences to the member countries, there are several specific provisions of the USMCA that particularly benefit Mexican nearshoring developers in contracting with U.S. companies.
The USMCA addresses the free movement of data and digital products between the U.S. and Mexico in a comprehensive way, promoting local national trade much more effectively than NAFTA. The new rules open digital trade further by prohibiting tariffs or other trade barriers by either country for software, data, and other digital products. Mexico thereby becomes the only country with preferential digital trade access with the U.S. Also removed are any data localization restrictions, which opens up nearshore providers for cloud computing development and services. Developers in Mexico are not restricted from using cloud services anywhere in the U.S. in developing or managing software.
The previous mismatch between the U.S. and Mexico in protecting IP rights caused the potential for risk of loss when working with nearshore developers, as theft of IP or unfair competitive acts might not have been addressable under the jurisdiction of Mexican law. Under the USMCA, U.S.-based companies are able to avail themselves of the same standards of IP protection available in the U.S. Standard copyright protections for software developed for U.S. companies have been extended to 75 years after the first use and dissemination of digital products. The USMCA also establishes a Committee of Intellectual Property Rights that coordinates the enforcement of IP rights for digital products that move between the U.S. and Mexico.
For advanced outsourcing projects that benefit from work-related travel to the U.S., the USMCA gives strong preference to Mexican software professionals not available to other countries. Work visas for Mexican professionals do not carry a date restriction and can be applied for any time of the calendar year. Unlike traditional H1B visas that are strictly rationed and only issued in October each year, developers, programmers, and engineers from Mexico can be authorized to freely travel to the U.S. to meet the needs of local clients and contractors.
“Streamlined Visa Procedures for Developers From Mexico”
All 7 of them.
That is really not much different than the situation under NAFTA.
Mexico has a tiny fraction of the IT employee base that India has so it was always much less of an issue.
Let’s get it real, America!
This should be part of a Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement bill, missing since 1986 ONE TIME amnesty. The List of Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement, missing since 1986 goes like this -
1) southern barrier;
2) require eVerify to hire;
3) end all chain migration;
4) birthright per Minor v. Happersett (plural parents);
5) end work visas;
6) 10-year moratorium on all new applications for citizenship (40 years to allow workplace automation effects on downsizing population);
7) Set up an illegal aliens’ victim restitution fund.
Enactment of these provisions will motivate illegal aliens to SELF-deport, and remove colonizadors from our welfare rolls.
Too much supply causes prices to drop...very basic economic principle. Importing cheaper goods & services is the corporate motto.
I started asking for less money; and, have never gone without work. I do believe the salary scales were inflated. People are too proud to adjust.
Mexico and software are two words that typically do not go together.
IT pros need to unionize. They are getting their clocks cleaned by the owners.
You can value yourself as little as you like; others are nonetheless entitled to resist corporate globalists getting Third World labor welfare to undercut the market salary.
I have given you the key to employment. It doesn't take much of a reduction in salary to beat out the competition. You can expect a king's ransom as a salary and watch the jobs to to foreigners, or adapt to the Golden Rule. You know, the man with the gold makes the rules.
“It doesn’t take much of a reduction in salary to beat out the competition.”
False.
‘The Department of Labor states that employers must pay H-1B workers no less than the “prevailing wage” set for their role in their geographic area of employment. But the federal law still technically allows employers to misclassify H-1B recipients as entry-level employees, meaning they can be paid less. In Silicon Valley, entry-level computer programmers earn $52,229 while the average for American programmers is roughly $90,000.’ - https://onezero.medium.com/visa-workers-at-techs-biggest-companies-speak-out-about-discrimination-298c9fa686b6
If you come off the $90K just a little, you'd be surprised how different things might be. Employers do know the difference experience means, they just aren't willing to pay so much for it. Bitch all you want, it is now a buyer's market. So decide, do want a software job or do you want to turn hamburgers?
I'll take the technical job - and also continue to "bitch" that the Rats and GOPe at the bidding of their corporate globalist johns are undermining the American middle class with cheap-foreign-labor welfare. The supine resignation you seem to advocate is neither conservative nor in my interest.
My 'supine resignation' kept me employed, where I wanted to be employed, and very close to a full salary level. Peers like yourself faded away. Once I worked for myself I had all the work I could handle at an earnings level consistent with where I live and my tenure in the workplace. I have no regrets.
One must understand the times, and that Americans do not have a special lock on brain power. American industry, on the other hand, must be able to compete in the global economy. I preferred the regional economies myself; however, I can't change what I don't control. I can use battlefield tactics when finding a job that idiots would turn down.
Now I work when I want, doing what I want to do, at the price I ask. I supinely retired. Now I even have time for my favorite pursuits, down in my very well equipped metal/wood workshop.
No it didn't - supine resignation is dismissing as "bitching" pointing out that the Rats and GOPe at the bidding of their corporate globalist johns are undermining the American middle class with cheap-foreign-labor welfare.
Peers like yourself faded away.
Since I said I'd take the job, your snide crack about "peers like myself" is uncalled for.
It's not about competing, but getting short-term savings at the cost of quality and the American standard of living: Foreign-Educated Immigrants Are Less Skilled Than U.S. Degree Holders
Start your own company, make your own rules, choose your clients. I was much happier once I took that plunge. It works only when you are one of the "good ones".
Straw man - it's not about the "old days" but about advocating improvements in government policy (while individually doing our best given current policy).
This Nation is driven by greed. Your greed makes you think you are worth more than those who will work for less. Corporate greed makes them hire outsiders who will work below the fair market value. You will never be able to change that, so figure out a way to cope. You will sleep better at night.
This idea goes back a long way. For example, in the British Royal Navy of colonial times, a ship's engineer was not regarded highly and was certainly not respected. When they were Scotts, they were considered scum. A necessary scum, not withstanding. Management has never really overcome that bias.
Early in my career I discovered that electrical engineers viewed software engineers as glorified secretaries. They were incised that we had to be paid so much. After all, we just typed for a living, right?
The elites haven't changed their views too much over the years.
My desire to provide for my family is not "greed." Stop posting like a corporate shill.
Corporate greed makes them hire outsiders who will work below the fair market value. You will never be able to change that,
Your defeatism has no place on a conservative activist site.
so figure out a way to cope. You will sleep better at night.
I cope and sleep just fine, thanks. As a psychiatrist, you make an excellent electronics/software designer.
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