Mexico to impose sanctions on US exports

[Shah786]

A long-simmering trade dispute boiled over into sanctions on Monday after Mexico said it would raise tariffs on $2.4bn of US exports in retaliation for ending a pilot programme to allow Mexican trucks on American roads The announcement marks one of the first big tests for trade policy under President Barack Obama, who has sought to tread a fine line between assuaging his domestic constituencies and upholding the US’s international obligations.

Mexico said it would increase tariffs on 90 industrial and agricultural goods, likely to include politically sensitive farm products, after Congress last week killed a pilot programme allowing a limited number of Mexican trucks on American highways. Mexico obtained a judicial ruling in 2001 under the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) allowing it to impose such sanctions, but has held off since the US introduced the pilot scheme.

The sanctions, which Mexican officials say are set to be imposed later this week, will be one of the largest acts of retaliation against US exports. US goods exports to Mexico totalled $151.5bn last year. On Monday, Gerardo Ruíz Mateos, Mexico’s economy minister, said: “We believe that the action taken by the US is wrong, protectionist and in clear violation of Nafta.”

The White House said on Monday it would seek to create a new programme that would address what it called the “legitimate concerns of Congress” while meeting the US’s Nafta commitments. But Mexican officials said they would not be bought off with promises.

The pilot programme has been opposed by many lawmakers and by the Teamsters Union, which says that Mexican trucks are unsafe. Because they are largely restricted to short-run hops over the border, most Mexican trucks entering the US are run by so-called “drayage” operations that use older vehicles more likely to fail inspection tests. But a study funded by the US Department of Transportation found that when comparing like with like, Mexican trucks were often safer than their US counterparts.

“The Mexicans have been extraordinarily patient on this,” said Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The pilot project was enough to give them glimmerings of hope for a long time.”
FT.com / Americas - Mexico to impose sanctions on US exports

 

[Scuba]

Well since Mexico never lived up to their part as far as letting US trucks into Mexico as far as I’m concerned they broke NAFTA a long time ago and we should match the tariff’s and put the Army on the boarder and make Mexico keep their illegal’s in their own country. We also should bill Mexico for all of the US tax dollars that have been spent taking care of their people that had no right to be here. But sadly our worthless politicians will never do what's best for our country instead they will pander to the illegal vote

 

[termite289]

Ohh goody!!! Mr. Obama will have to do something other than spend a few billion with this one. lets stay tuned and see what happens. This is going to be better than an episode of batman when we were kids.

 

[Turtle]

All we'd have to do is put an immediate ban on the import of Mexican produce and they'd change their tune in a heartbeat.

 

[aristotle]

I think Mexico's biggest export to America is labor. Of course, there are the drugs. too. If we factor in everything that's traded on the blackmarket, I doubt we have a favorable balance of trade with Mexico.

Ross Perot was prescient in his warnings about NAFTA. He had the right message but was the wrong messenger. Much like Sarah Palin, Perot was just too easy to lampoon.

 

[greg334]

All we'd have to do is put an immediate ban on the import of Mexican produce and they'd change their tune in a heartbeat.

This will fix the problem.

Their ag exports are very important to them, more important than our 'what ever we sell there' is.

Didn't they raise a real stink over some of the new rules for ag imports a number of years ago and we exempt them from some of the pesticide bans?

 

[arrbsthw]

All we'd have to do is put an immediate ban on the import of Mexican produce and they'd change their tune in a heartbeat.

That would be a great idea but I don't think we have anyone
in office that has the guts to do it. Bunch of weaklings!

 

[greg334]

But see here is the thing, the truckers need to get involved, they are the ones who are effected by this - not the public. The produce coming into the country can be replaced with stuff here, the wholesalers are the ones making the money by importing ag products, not the farmers or the retailers. The people in some respects are getting smarter but on the other hand it is all about the money and for that reason alone, the trucker needs to get involved and boycott mexican products and work.

 

[layoutshooter]

Greg is right, either cut our or put high tarrifs on all Mexican ag imports. Truckers need to be of one voice on this, but that will never happen. Teamsters will fight independents etc on whatever. Our industry is fragmented and will NOT stand as one, we should, but we won't. Layoutshooter

 

[greg334]

The Unions want this to happen, they want the bodies and the influence in Mexico, they want the money and to control things for themselves.

 

[layoutshooter]

You may be right on that one Greg. I can assure you that NO big union is primarily there to look out for the Rank and File anymore. They are there to look out for themselves, line thier own pockets and hold as much power as possible. Layoutshooter

 

[Jack_Berry]

All we'd have to do is put an immediate ban on the import of Mexican produce and they'd change their tune in a heartbeat.

great idea but i don't think the u.s. gov has the cajones to do that. where would we get the replacement produce, canada?

heard the dine rheem(?) show yesterday on npr. they discussed the trucking program. the one trucker on the show who called in had great points but the panel had "all the facts" from the us gov, such as previously mentioned, safety, for miles driven. oddly they never mentioned the miles to accidents ratio. what was not brought up was the number of violations of d.o.t. caught at the border and returned to may-he-co.

 

[greg334]

great idea but i don't think the u.s. gov has the cajones to do that. where would we get the replacement produce, canada?

It is not the government who has to do this, the people have to get smart about it and the truckers need to get out in the public's face and tell them what this all means.

As for food from Mexico, we can grow it here, there is enough land to provide the food.

heard the dine rheem(?) show yesterday on npr. they discussed the trucking program. the one trucker on the show who called in had great points but the panel had "all the facts" from the us gov, such as previously mentioned, safety, for miles driven. oddly they never mentioned the miles to accidents ratio. what was not brought up was the number of violations of d.o.t. caught at the border and returned to may-he-co.

This is NPR, they already have it figured out and is part of the elite part of the country, if it was someone who had to deal with their lawn care workers being threaten of deportation, then they would listen.

We should just get rid of them, their purpose has been long gone because of Cable in the Classroom project. As a matter of fact, some of these guys/gals have made millions using NPR and public tv as a launching pad where they would never make it in the real world.

LBJ said when he sign the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967;

It will give a wider and, I think, stronger voice to educational radio and television by providing new funds for broadcast facilities. It will launch a major study of television's use in the Nation's classrooms and their potential use throughout the world. Finally — and most important — it builds a new institution: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.