A rough consensus in favor of encouraging foreign-owned factories finally emerged at a meeting of top officials in May.

Moreover, some 52 percent of China's exports come from foreign-owned factories.

So far, Washington has not opposed these takeovers, in part because the foreign-owned factories keep Americans in jobs.

It permits foreign-owned factories to import components free of duty, assemble the components in Mexico using cheap local labor and then export the finished product.

Figure 5.5 Employment change in foreign-owned factories, 1978-86, by region.

Maquiladoras are foreign-owned factories that employ mostly women in the production of textiles for export.

Since 1994, the foreign-owned factories just inside Mexico, known as maquiladoras, have added 220,000 jobs, a 60 percent increase.

The local residents, many of whom presumably will one day work at the foreign-owned factories, often politely scurry away when foreigners try to speak to them.

This includes many of the WalMart-suppliers and other foreign-owned factories that stock department store shelves, particularly in the US,.