Fresh on the heels of his appearance at the G-20, Barack Obama next week ventures to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas. Prior to that he’ll stop in Mexico to try to improve damaged relations with that country. As I’ve written elsewhere, Obama triggered a low-level trade war when he kowtowed to the Teamsters and canceled the program that formerly allowed some | Read More »
Mexico made it official today, retaliating against the NAFTA violation approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last week: Looking to avoid a trade war with Mexico, the White House Monday called for legislation that would create a new program to allow Mexican trucks to enter the U.S. The initial cross-border trucking project was terminated as part of the omnibus spending bill | Read More »
There’s trouble south of the Rio Grande. In 2006, Mexico elected a bright, conservative reformer as President. Felipe Calderon has attempted to open Mexico’s flagging energy sector to private investment, fight government corruption, and crack down on the illegal drug trade. He’s making some progress (albeit less than the U.S. would like) and it’s coming at a significant cost. Throughout these efforts, President Calderon had | Read More »
Note: I’ll be discussing this issue on Fausta’s podcast at 11:00AM Eastern time today. If you don’t have the time to listen in today, bookmark her blog and check in over there anyway. I’ve been writing about Congress’s eagerness to violate U.S. treaty commitments by banning Mexican trucks from U.S. roads (most recently here). It’s gotten precious little attention in the U.S. press, but folks | Read More »
I’ve written before about a dangerous provision of the Omnibus appropriations legislation now under consideration in the Senate. The bill violates the U.S. commitment under NAFTA to allow Mexican trucking companies to operate in the U.S., so long as they meet all the standards to which U.S. companies and trucks are held. If Obama signs this measure into law, Mexico will have the right to | Read More »
Barack Obama and the Democrats swept to power on a promise of doing more to restore good relations with key trading partners. To that end we’re selling Eastern Europe out to Russia in a vain attempt to deter Iranian nuclear ambitions, and we’re giving UK Prime Minister copies of Toy Story. And when it comes to treaty compliance, Congressional Democrats are eager to stiff Mexico, | Read More »
Why is it that the U.S. press seems unable to follow up on statements that President Obama makes to hispanic audiences (a term I use here in its broadest possible sense). As I pointed out yesterday, the press took no notice when Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that Obama had promised to pursue comprehensive immigration reform.
In his current Canadian trip, Barack Obama has attracted a lot of attention for his statement that he would like to modify the NAFTA accord to give a higher status to labor and environmental standards. There’s been some blowback from Canada, but reaction has been relatively muted. What is surprising is that the reaction in Mexico has been muted as well. Given the Mexican government’s | Read More »
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