This is the same country that won't control its borders and is asking us for help with the drug war!!!
March 19, 2009
Mexico Threatens To Apply Tariffs to Certain U.S. Exports
Mexico has announced that it intends to take retaliatory actions against a broad range of U.S. exports in response to the termination of a cross-border, long-distance trucking Demonstration Program, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at a Press Briefing held on March 16, 2009.
The Press Secretary stated that the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill (Public Law 111-8) terminated the pilot trucking project, but that President Barack Obama had tasked the Department of Transportation to work with the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of State – along with leaders in Congress and Mexican officials – to propose legislation creating a new trucking project that met both the concerns of Congress and U.S. commitments to NAFTA.
In response, Mexico published a decree in the Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF) – which is the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Register – that modifies Article 1 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Article 1 establishes tariffs for U.S. goods. The DOF decree states that because the U.S. is out of compliance with its NAFTA obligations regarding the cross-border trucking Demonstration Program, and the U.S. and Mexico have not reached a satisfactory solution, Mexico can suspend equal benefits. Mexico is therefore increasing tariffs on certain U.S. imports of its choice. Approximately 90 U.S. agricultural and industrial products are affected. The higher tariffs take effect on March 19, 2009.
