Word: mexicans
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Down in Mexico, the administration of President Felipe Calderón accused the U.S. of being hypocritical and protectionist. It has a strong case. Under NAFTA, Mexican trucks were meant to be roaming some U.S. roads in 1995 and the width and breadth of the whole country by 2000. However, successive U.S. administrations could not say no to Teamster complaints that Mexican trucks were not fit for the interstates. Finally, both sides agreed on the pilot program to break the deadlock...
However, while Mexicans are normally pleased to celebrate any chance to hit back against the imperialist gringos, there was little popular applause for the latest measures. As the world economy is suffering, the Mexican peso has lost about 40% of its value against the dollar in the past four months. That means higher prices for just about any product imaginable in the supermarkets and stores of Mexico, which imported $151 billion worth of goods from its northern neighbor last year. The new tariffs mean the prices will go up even further. "This will hit poor people, whatever the government says...
...Even the Mexican trucking companies were reluctant to praise the measures. Indeed, right now their trucks are busy blocking city streets to protest high diesel prices set by government oil monopoly Pemex. They have nothing nice to say about their own government. Adolfo Torres, a regional leader of the National Chamber of Cargo Transporters, said the U.S. ban on Mexican trucks shows that the White House is better at supporting its own industries. "The U.S. government is defending its people, closing the border to Mexican transport, while here we have to turn to drastic measures like a strike...
...dispute may be in sight, though. Obama's Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, met with U.S. lawmakers Tuesday, saying he planned to restart the pilot program with sufficient safety requirements imposed on Mexican truckers. Though key American Representatives have yet to sign on to LaHood's initiative, Ruiz said the same day that Mexico would remove the tariffs to reciprocate if the program were reinstituted. "For us, the solution is to go on with the program that we had," he said. "In the moment the United States returns to its commitments, we will eliminate all the tariffs we imposed." Clinton...
...same time, Mexican officialdom has always used American myopia as an excuse to blow off its own epic failings. The most glaring, of course, is Mexico's police corruption and lack of rule of law, which has given the drug cartels free rein and too often turned Mexican law enforcement into narco-collaborators. Perhaps the only way to shame Mexican politicians into owning up to that national sin - and finally doing something about it - is for the U.S. to confront its own shortcomings. (See pictures of Mexico's narco-carnage...