Today’s podcast: Washington’s trade war with Mexico.
Related articles:
US law sparks Mexican trade row
Mexico Strikes Back in Trade Spat
Washington Starts Another Trade War
Previous posts:
Mexico raises tariffs reacting to Obama’s truck action
Previous podcast:
Will Mexico retaliate when Obama violates NAFTA?
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…Obama Wants U.S.-Mexico Trucking Program Restored.
As you may recall, Brian Faughnan was in last Friday’s podcast talking about exactly that issue. Brian had predicted last Tuesday that Mexico would raise tariffs following the administration’s violating NAFTA. Sure enough, Mexico raised tariffs on 90 US products, and now the truck-crossing program is being restored:
The White House says it wants to work with lawmakers to restore a program that allows cross-border trucking with Mexico.Mexico Monday put in place tariffs on 90 U.S. products after Washington canceled a program that allowed some trucks from Mexico to operate in the U.S. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the administration wants to work with Congress to come up with a plan that would restore that program.
Lawmakers had safety concerns and other reservations and did away with the program in last week’s spending bill.
Mr. Gibbs says the White House is working with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.) to write a bill that would deal with lawmakers’ concerns.
The Mexican Economy Department says the U.S. decision violates a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement that was supposed to have opened cross-border trucking years ago. Department officials told a news conference Monday that the measure will affect about $2.4 billion in trade, covering agricultural and industrial products from 40 U.S. states.
The Mexican officials didn’t name the products or specify the amount by which import tariffs will increase.
Activists in the U.S. had argued that Mexican trucks were unsafe, something Mexico denies.
It may be a good idea to avoid this type of colossal mistake if lawmakers would actually read the bills before voting on them.
