Swine Flu * Mexico - To Shut Down Business to Fight

Efforts to contain swine flu threaten global supply chains, cross-border business

Mexico City,DF,MEX -The Journal of Commerce Online (NJ,USA), by William B. Cassidy -Apr 30, 2009: -- The Mexican government will shut down private business, including factories and transportation operations, for five days starting Friday as the country tries to halt the spread of the swine flu virus... The action also will shut down nonessential government activity May 1-5 as the country struggles to contain a virus that has killed 170 people in the country and spread to other continents... Transportation companies said Thursday that they had seen no disruption in cross-border trade with the United States but the business shutdown could idle factories and other businesses in a country that has already suffered a sharp decline in tourism as fear of the virus has spread... Even a temporary stay on business activity in Mexico could have profound implications for multinational supply chains that link Mexico to the United States and Canada as well as Europe, Asia and the rest of Latin America... Companies that ship and move goods across the U.S.-Mexico border, meanwhile, were already preparing for the worst...