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WAR TRADE with MEXICO * USA - Doing wrong by Mexico
Boston,MA,USA -The Boston Herald -March 21, 2009: -- Mexico has announced new tariffs, generally 20 percent, on 90 U.S. products as retaliation for failure of the U.S. government to permit more Mexican trucks to deliver in the United States as agreed to in the NAFTA treaty 14 years ago... According to a NAFTA committee ruling, Mexico is entirely in the right and we’re surprised it has waited this long to act. The shameful disregarding of treaty obligations, first by the Clinton administration and then by Congress, at the behest of the Teamsters Union is a dreadful example to other countries... Mexico is slapping its major trading partner on the wrist, though particular states like California may be stung. The new tariffs cover only 1.5 percent of Mexico’s U.S. imports - some produce, wines, certain toiletries, telephone gear, batteries and other odds and ends... Congress will not tremble before the shampoo lobby. Mexico might have concentrated on internationally competitive industries. A 20 percent tariff on construction equipment, available from Komatsu of Japan, and gas turbines, available from ABB of Switzerland, might have provoked members of the United Auto Workers at Caterpillar and of the International Union of Electrical Workers at General Electric to storm Capitol Hill... We’d suggest that Congress repeal the trucking provision because it’s the right thing to do. But with this Congress that’s hardly a persuasive argument...
* Back the truck up - It's a bad time to start a trade war with Mexico
Savannah,GA,USA -The Savannah Morning News -23 March 2009: -- As a major U.S. port, Savannah reaps the benefits of free trade... So does the rest of Georgia and the Southeast... Unfortunately, President Obama is fumbling the free trade issue in the Southwest in an attempt to placate the Teamsters union... He must quickly recover and nip this dangerous tilt toward protectionism. Otherwise, he's risks sending the wrong message to our global trading partners during a time when the nation can ill-afford it... The issue? A looming trade war with Mexico, our country's third-largest trading partner... Getting all unsafe trucks off the highways is a legitimate goal. But the biggest issue here isn't safety. It's protectionism...
* Is Protectionism Taking Hold?
USA -Finding Dulcinea -23 March 2009: -- ... According to NPR, the trucking program has been “vigorously opposed by the Teamsters union, which represents U.S. truck drivers,” since it began as part of NAFTA in 1994. Teamsters have claimed Mexican trucks are not safe, which has been disproved, but the American union carries great weight with Congress... NPR reports, “Congress killed the pilot program last week at the urging of the Teamsters union and their supporters.”... Some are calling the program cancellation an example of protectionism, which is almost universally regarded as “a bad thing” by economists right now. According to NPR, protectionism “is just what is developing between the U.S. and Mexico.”... According to a March 13 article in YaleGlobal that discussed trade policies and global economic recovery, “the recession emboldens protectionist forces.”... “Trade is experiencing a sudden, severe and globally synchronized collapse,” but the protectionism of today is different than the “1930s-style protection that relies on transparent tariff barriers,” YaleGlobal reported. Instead, today's protectionist measures are discriminating ”against foreign firms, workers and investors.” ... (Photo by Guillermo Arias/AP - A truck drives out the Mexican transport custom of Otay after crossing into Mexico from the United States)Labels: mexicans' trucks debate
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