A Tit for Tat over Trucks AS/COA Online 03/20/09

Trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo)

A move by U.S. Congress to stop a cross-border trucking program drew a counterpunch from Mexico this week. The recently signed U.S. spending bill ended funding for a pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to transport cargo inside the United States and vice versa. With the program a long overdue part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico chose to retaliate. The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón unveiled new tariffs for close to 90 industrial and agricultural products imported from the United States. Yet Washington announced a pair of high-profile visits to Mexico by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. President Barack Obama, opening the door to smooth the turbulence over trade and security issues.

As the tariffs were announced, Mexico’s Economy Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said that the now-suspended pilot program had been successful with no major safety incidents. He also said the cancellation of the program is “wrong, protectionist, and clearly violates the [NAFTA] treaty.” A Department of Transportation report found that Mexican truckers registered under the program met all 22 safety mandates demanded by U.S. Congress.

The duties, which went into effect on March 19, represent tariff increases of as much as 45 percent on $2.4 billion worth of exports, explains Sidney Weintraub of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a Forbes.com editorial that breaks down the history of the trucking plan. The Mexican government carefully chose the products on the tariff list “to avoid pushing up prices of staples in Mexico while hitting goods that are important exports for a range of American states. That way, it could have maximum political effect north of the border,” The Economist explains. Wall Street Journal warns that Mexico can turn to other trading partners—Europe, Canada, and Latin America—to replace the U.S. brands. Total trade between Mexico and the United States stood at over $367 billion in 2008.

Trade and trucks are not the only matters troubling U.S.-Mexican relations at the moment. At AS/COA’s recent annual Mexico City conference, Calderón condemned remarks originating in the United States that question Mexico’s institutional strength in the face of violent organized crime. He raised concerns about U.S. drug consumption and arms smuggling and urged joint U.S.-Mexican action to fight drug cartels.

Given the tensions, the timing of the upcoming visits by Obama and Clinton could prove crucial to giving ties between the neighbors a boost. Appearing on National Public Radio’s “Diane Rehm Show,” COA’s Eric Farnsworth explained expects that this bump in trade relations won’t escalate “at a time when, I think, neither nation could afford it.”

Mexico’s El Universal takes a closer look at the trade rift and plans for Obama’s trip to Mexico in advance of April’s Summit of the Americas. Clinton’s visit next week will pave the way for Obama’s. Moreover, the appointment of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk as the new U.S. Trade Representative gained congressional approval this week, just in time to tackle the problem. “It will be one gnarly challenge after the next for the new U.S. trade representative, starting with the trade war that erupted this week with Mexico,” says Dallas Morning News.

Some contend that killing plans for a trucking program will result in higher shipping costs. Bloomberg reports that what a truck could haul from one point in Mexico to another in the United States will take three different trucks and one extra day without the program. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that the value of goods transported by truck between both countries rose to $234 billion last year. Mexico’s decision came as the World Bank raised alarm about protectionist measures undertaken by G20 members in the midst of the global financial crisis.

AS/COA hosts a program on March 24 in advance of the Obama and Clinton visits. Learn about the event, which will involve a panel videoconferenced in New York and Washington.

Read the article as originally posted at the AS/COA website.

The Americas 2008: A Year in Retrospective AS/COA Online 12/23/08

View a slideshow of the most compelling events in the hemisphere. Also, read an article by AS/COA Online Managing Editor Carin Zissis on the most riveting events affecting the Americas in 2008.

Click the image to watch the photo gallery.

Drug Cartels Move Beyond Borders AS/COA Online 12/19/08

A vigil in Mexico for drug war victims. (AP Images)

Two years after Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared war on the country’s drug cartels, the bloodletting continues to spread. Despite impressive arrests and narcotics seizures, the murder rate doubled in 2008 over the previous year. Moreover, the gangs’ tentacles reach into the highest levels of government down to local police forces. But the drug war’s impact has also been felt well beyond Mexico, with links extending across the Americas, into Europe, and as far as Australia.

Out of fear of the drug war’s overflow, Guatemala plans to deploy several hundred soldiers along its border with Mexico during the next few weeks. In September, Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom accused the cartels of high-level infiltration after it came to light that his office had been bugged. Analyst Sam Logan at ISN Security Watch describes Guatemala as the “release valve” for the cartels, given its low altitude and proximity to paved roads in Mexico. Logan also points out that, in South America, Peru saw ties develop between Mexican drug cartels and the Maoist Shining Path guerillas. Recent attacks on the Peruvian army in which 15 soldiers and two civilians died were blamed on ex-guerrillas hired by Mexican drug traffickers to “secure their trade routes out of the mountains.” According to a UN report, coca cultivation increased in Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia by 16 percent since 2001.

The connections appear to reach even further south; Argentina has become a drug trade hub, fueling the U.S. methamphetamine and European cocaine demands. Latin American Thought blog’s Eliot Brockner reports on the recent seizure of 1,000 kilos of cocaine at Buenos Aires’ port. The fact that Mexican drug cartels “can use Argentina as an entry (ephedrine/pseudoephedrine) and exit (cocaine) point suggests there is a fairly well-coordinated smuggling ring capable of transporting large quantities of illicit merchandise across South America,” he writes.

The cartels’ links reach beyond the Americas. A Stratfor analysis covers Mexican connections with Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta organized criminal clan, allowing for drugs to be shipped from Colombia through Mexico to the United States and on to Italy. From there, the drugs could be distributed to the European market. Earlier this month, a cocaine bust involving the arrest of three Mexican nationals by Australia’s federal police uncovered that country’s local link to that Mexico’s cartel.

The 2009 National Threat Assessment published by the National Drug Intelligence Center identifies Mexican drug-trafficking organizations as “the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.” With an eye to the problem, the United States released $197 million to Mexico at the beginning of December—the first of a $400 million package to fight organized crime through the Mérida Initiative.

As the crisis grows, so do the calls for solutions. Harvard International Review’s Jason Larkin suggests that, in the absence of decriminalization or results from increased militarization, negotiation with cartels stands as an option, “just as the U.S. has considered negotiating with the Taliban.” In a lengthy article, OpenDemocracy.net writes that “legalization may become the most effective weapon in the arsenal aimed at organized crime…it seems now is the perfect time to give it a try,” after a thorough analysis of the crisis. A Semana op-ed compares the tragedy facing Mexico to the one in Colombia’s recent history. It recommends that Latin American governments come together to coordinate efforts to halt the bloodshed, which could help affect change internationally. A Cox News Service article looks to similar organized crime circles of the past, ranging from Chicago during Prohibition to Italy’s Mafia, and suggests that peace may come through legalization or by fragmentation of the cartels.

El Universal features a multimedia page that tracks the ongoing violence and keeps a complete tally of the war’s victims in Mexico. Read an AS/COA analysis on how gun smuggling from the United States into Mexico fuels the war.

En español.

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