It didn’t take long for the opponents of Mexican trucks, or for that matter, anything Mexican to come out with their discredited rants opposing the US fulfilling its obligation to allow Mexican trucks access to US roadways in the same manner Canadian trucks have been allowed for more than 10 years.
Teamster President James Hoffa was the first out of the chute with his tired sophomoric and overused rhetoric.
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Mexico will impose additional import tariffs on U.S. goods in retaliation for the U.S. government’s failure to restore a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate north of the border, according to an official at the Economy Ministry.
Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari plans to announce a new list of U.S. products subject to tariffs today,sources at the ministry advised MTO. The official declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak on the subject. Ferrari said the list will be published this week but refused to give further details. The total value of products tariffed would not exceed $2.5 billion, he said.
Mexico’s embassy in Washington said the revised list will include 99 products. A U.S. industry source said the retaliation is expected to hit U.S. pork.
Mexico’s government has patiently been waiting for the U.S. to propose a resolution to the standoff, which started when the U.S. Congress ended a pilot program last year that allowed Mexican trucks to deliver goods inside the U.S. Tired of the United States broken promises, Mexico responded in March 2009 by putting import tariffs on valued at $2.4 billion.
The United States agreed to open its market to Mexican trucks as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect in 1994, but the U.S. Teamsters union and many of its supporters in Congress have fought implementation of that pledge.
Mexican based carriers have consistently shown an equal or better safety ratings than their US counterparts.
U.S. officials have promised on multiple occasions to take steps to resolve the standoff, and each time reneged. Presiden Barack Obama said in August 2009 he was committed to finding a solution.
Mexican trucks traveling north on Mexico 85 from Monterrey into Nuevo Laredo in this photo taken on Cinco de Mayo 2010
Two months ago, LaHood told the same panel that a new proposal was “very near.”
LaHood’s comments Thursday came during questioning from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
LaHood and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan were testifying before a subcommittee on an Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities.
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A new week and more misinformation coming from OOIDA as they push their lemmings to urge their Congresspeople to sign on to Rep. Peter DeFazio’s silly little letter calling for the Obama Administration to discriminate once more, against Mexico, by renegotiating the provision that allows Mexican trucks access to the United States.
It’s also the eve of the first anniversary of the legal tariff’s that Mexico instituted in retaliation for the closure of the Cross Border Demonstration Project.
Our sources confirm that the rumors circulating that the Mexican government may update a trade retaliation list against U.S. products is true. This new list is very likely to include tariff’s on beef, pork and chicken products exported to Mexico.
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One of the nation’s oldest and most corrupt labor unions is praising new, bipartisan legislation that would withdraw the United States from NAFTA, and vanquish one of the biggest enemies of American organized labor for more than 15 years.
A small but broad coalition of lawmakers from across the political spectrum came together last Thursday to sponsor a bill to repeal U.S. participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The trade agreement by the United States, Canada and Mexico, NAFTA eliminated tarrifs and other trade restrictions that had been in place. The deal was originally negotiated during the term of president George H.W. Bush. Bill Clinton later embraced it over the objections of many Democratic allies, including organized labor. Clinton, in fact, had to rely on Republican votes in Congress to pass the legislation that ratified the treaty.
Their legislation would repeal the approval of NAFTA and instructs the president to notify Canada and Mexico of the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty. It has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. The drive to repeal NAFTA outright also is a change in itself, where previously lawmakers had sought mostly just to reform the agreement.
One can just see the sleezy hand of James Hoffa behind this. If it passes, it has to go to the President for his signature. Fat chance and fat chance of anything before the mid terms.
MORE ON THE ISSUE
Responding to a question by Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Chairman Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who asked for an update on the Mexico truck program, LaHood said "We are finalizing a plan. The reason it is taking so long is there's a lot of moving parts.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said this morning that the DOT was close to coming up with a proposal to allow Mexican trucks access to the United States, under the rules of NAFTA.
LaHood was testifying at a hearing about the 2011 DOT budget before the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
Responding to a question by subcommittee Chairman Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who asked for an update on the Mexico truck program, LaHood said “We are finalizing a plan. The reason it is taking so long is there’s a lot of moving parts.”
On March 1, 56 lawmakers sent a letter to Kirk and LaHood urging the Obama administration to resolve the nearly year-long dispute that started when Congress killed the program in the 2009 appropriations bill.
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