Gaby, a young Mexican with long dark hair, tight faded jeans and a white puffy jacket, is at work assembling flat-screen televisions on a production line in Ciudad Juárez, just south of the border with El Paso, Texas.

Not so long ago, virtually all the screens that she assembles at the Taiwanese Tatung plant in Ciudad Juárez would have been destined for the US market. Today, however, at least 30 per cent of the 12,000 televisions a week that she and her colleagues put together go to other markets, including that of Mexico.