A year later and Mexican tariffs still in place over trucking dispute
Washington Ag Today March 11, 2010 It was a year ago yesterday that Congress effectively ended a pilot trucking program with Mexico that allowed our southern neighbor to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports under NAFTA. Twelve months later the dispute remains unresolved and the tariffs remain in place negatively impacting Washington exports to Mexico like French fries. John Keeling of the National Potato Council explains what the 20 percent Mexican tariff has done. Keeling: “U.S. exports of frozen processed potatoes to Mexico have fallen by 50% in value and at that same time Canadian exports have risen by almost an identical amount.” Pears, cherries and apricots have also been subject to the 20 percent tariff. Congress did include language in a spending bill that allows the administration to move forward on resolving the trucking issue but so far a new program has not been put in place. The U.S. Transportation Secretary says not all relevant government agencies have signed off. A coalition of organizations representing agriculture and manufacturers is calling for urgent action and earlier this month, a bipartisan group of more than 50 Members of the House sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Kirk and Transportation Secretary LaHood expressing concern about the Administration’s lack of progress in resolving this year-long issue. A recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce study showed that the U.S. failure to meet its commitment to Mexico will cost an estimated 25,000 American jobs. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
