Confederación de Cámaras Nacionales de Comercio (CONCANACO)

The Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce is a Mexican organization that groups together local chambers of commerce to represent commercial-sector interests at a national level. Although it is considered a public organization, its members formally control it under a one-firm-one-vote principle. It was created on 3 November 1917, during the National Congress of Commerce by forty-two local chambers in the presence of President Venustiano Carranza. Its legal existence was recognized in the Law of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in 1936. In 1941 this law was modified to denominate the chambers and confederations as autonomous public institutions. The law was modified once more in 1997 and again in 2005. The main change was that affiliation to any chamber was no longer mandatory.

Although the role of Mexican government in the creation and development of CONCANACO is clear, it has always conducted an independent discourse about public policy; the economic independence of its membership seems to be the reason for this. CONCANACO criticized protectionism in particular and was always resentful of government participation in the national economy. However, CONCANACO's position and strategy was usually more moderate than the position of more independent organizations such as the Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX). In the late 1980s CONCANACO supported Mexican economic liber-alization.

See alsoCarranza, Venustiano .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

"Confederación de Cámaras Nacionales de Comercio: Servicios y Turismo." Available from http://www.concanacored.com.

                                       Roderic Ai Camp