MY ETT News » NAFTA

Annual NAFTA trade up 24.3% in 2010

Rhonda Flathman — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:36:23 +0000

Though the latest numbers from the U.S. Department of Transportation indicate a significant increase in surface transportation trade between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico from 2009 to 2010, the value of North American surface trade remains below 2007 and 2008 levels. From 2009 to 2010, trade among North American Free Trade Agreement partners rose 24.3 percent, the largest year-to-year increase since the agreement took effect in 1994. U.S.-Canada surface transportation trade totaled $471 billion in 2010, an increase of 22.1 percent compared to 2009, while U.S.-Mexico surface
transportation trade totaled $320.3 billion in 2010, an increase of 27.6 percent compared to 2009.

NAFTA Trade Numbers Grow, Though Value Remains Down
Surface transportation trade between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and Mexico increased by 24.3 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, reaching $791 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The 24.3 percent increase in trade was the largest year-to-year increase for the years covered by these data. NAFTA went into effect in 1994.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that despite the increase from 2009 to 2010, the value of North American surface trade in 2010 remained below the levels of 2007 and 2008.

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NAFTA Surface Trade Declines In May

Rhonda Flathman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:44:45 +0000

Month-to-month trade among North American Free Trade Agreement partners fell 3.7 percent from April to May, but the year-over-year monthly decline was the fifth consecutive plunge of at least 27 percent. From May 2008 to May 2009, surface transportation among the United States Canada and Mexico dropped 35.4 percent, making it the largest drop on record. The Department of Transportation’s report indicated that all imports and exports by truck, rail and pipeline tumbled from April to May. About 90 percent of U.S. trade among NAFTA partners moves by truck.

Surface transportation trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico fell 35.4% in May from a year earlier, the largest year-to-year drop on record, the Department of Transportation said Thursday.

The downturn was the fifth consecutive year-over-year monthly decline of at least 27% between the North American Free Trade Agreement partners.

Month-to-month, trade fell 3.7% in May from April, DOT’s Bureau of Trade Statistics said in its monthly report.

Truck imports to the United States dropped 29.7% to $17.2 billion, while exports fell 29.4% to $17.4 billion.

Rail imports plunged 46.1% to $4.4 billion, while exports fell 38% to $2.8 billion, DOT said. Pipeline imports fell 59.2% to $2.9 billion, while exports declined 52.1%, to $304 million.

U.S.-Canada trade fell 40.3% to $29.2 billion. The value of truck imports fell 35.7% and the value of truck exports fell 33.4%.

U.S.-Mexico trade fell 26% to $18.6 billion. The value of truck imports fell 23.4% and the value of truck exports fell 21.1%.

Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline. About 90% of U.S. trade among NAFTA partners moves by land.

[source - ttnews.com]

Pro-free traders call for rally against NAFTA protectionism

Rhonda Flathman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:51:41 +0000

Struggling economic times tend to heighten protectionist urges, but the former U.S. Ambassador to Canada is espousing the need for free-trade initiatives. Speaking recently in Quebec City, Gordon Griffin cited the growth that both Canada and the United States have experienced as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). From 1993 to 2006, trade between the two countries more than tripled, and in the U.S., employment, manufacturing output and real hourly wages saw double-digit increases.

Protectionist Buzz Spurs More Vocal NAFTA Support

QUEBEC CITY — As protectionist impulses heighten, former ambassadors have risen up to defend NAFTA and call for more vocal support for continued free trade initiatives.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Gordon Giffin, speaking at the annual conference of the North American Supercorridor Coalition (NASCO) in Quebec City, said economic inefficiencies and dire consequences would be the direct result of increased anti-trade policies and more vocal opposition is needed in order to drown out protectionist cries.

“Even in good times, there is a healthy skepticism about free trade and free-trade deals in the United States,” he said. “That tendency is enhanced and exacerbated by the stresses of our current economic challenges, which results in a perverse policy prescription like ‘Buy American’ which is being advanced by our Congress in the United States and which is, in effect, protectionism on steroids.”

He used a litany of statistics to prove that both Canada and the U.S. have benefited from NAFTA — including that from 1993 to 2006, trade between the two countries grew from $297 billion to $930 billion, U.S. employment rose 25 percent, real hourly wages in the United States rose 24 percent, and U.S. manufacturing output rose 58 percent.

“Without going on and on, by any measure, this has been a success,” he said.

Nevertheless, he added, opponents of free trade have been banging protectionist drums, and he believes it’s time for NAFTA supporters to respond. “If we don’t speak out as advocates, the naysayers will carry the day.”

He said NAFTA has become shorthand for the perceived shortcomings of globalized free trade, and political opponents are working for measures that, in his view, resemble the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which brought U.S. tariffs to their highest protective levels ever and arguably worsened the impending Depression.

His concerns over protectionism were echoed by Michael Kergin, former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., who said North Americans can profit from their own natural economies of scale and increase their cooperation to compete even more effectively in the global economy.

“Economic downturns inevitably increase pressures to resort to protectionism. Yet the impulse behind NAFTA was to insulate somewhat all three partners from these protectionist prescriptions for instant economic gratification,” he said. “I know of no serious economist who lays the blame for the current U.S. job losses exclusively, or even in part, at NAFTA’s doorstep.”

He said free-trade movements in other parts of the world — including the expansion of the European Union to include countries of the former Warsaw Pact, the Mercosur regional trade agreement spearheaded by Brazil, and the consolidation of Chinese ties by the Association of South-East Asian nations (ASEAN) — prove the need for continued, and even expanded free trade in North America.

In his address to delegates from Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, Kergin called for dismantling the barriers that prevent NAFTA suppliers from participating in federal and local projects financed though official stimulus funds.

This last point is particularly important, he said, given there have been incidents in all three NAFTA countries where North American companies have been shut out of infrastructure projects.

“Now is an opportune time for our leaders to show the vision, tempered by pragmatism, of their predecessors some 15 years ago,” said Kergin. “All three countries, not just the United States, have some form of exclusionary legislation, principally at state and provincial levels,” he said.

[source - todaystrucking.com]

Lawyer for CANACAR: U.S.-Mexico border should be open to all truckers

Rhonda Flathman — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:39:38 +0000

The latest move in a decades-long battle to open the U.S.-Mexican borders to Mexican trucks is a $6 billion lawsuit filed by Mexico’s trucking lobby for financial losses the industry has experienced in the last three years. Under the Bush administration in 2007, registered Mexican truckers were allowed to operate inside the U.S. border, but various groups have questioned whether those trucks met higher U.S. safety standards. The 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, signed into law by President Obama, eliminated that cross-border project. CANACAR, Mexico’s trucking lobby, says the creation of a new program, which Obama has expressed interest in doing, could lead to negotiations but that the suit would probably not be dropped entirely.

Mexican Trucking Lobby Files Suit Over Closed U.S. Borders, Citing Financial Losses

Despite the escalation in rhetoric over the cross-border trucking debate, a lawyer for the National Chamber of Autotransporte de Carga (CANACAR), the Mexico’s trucking lobby, told Fleet Owner that a compromise is still possible to avoid further damage to the U.S.-Mexican trade relationship.

Pedro M. Ojeda Cárdenas who filed a $6 billion suit under NAFTA Chapter 11 rules against the U.S. on behalf of CANACAR, said if the U.S. restarts the controversial cross-border trucking program in some form it “could open the door to compromise” of the suit.

“I see the position of the Mexican trucking industry,” Attorney Ojeda said. “We don’t want to harass anyone here. If [the U.S.] government comes with a program that is good and beneficial, the Mexican trucking industry would be open to discussions.”

Ojeda said financial losses to the Mexican trucking industry due to U.S. border policies in the past three years– pegged at $2 billion a year– is how the $6 billion figure was obtained. The suit will be heard at a later date by an international arbitrator under NAFTA rules.

The lawyer said the suit is not a reaction to the U.S. killing the cross-border demonstration project, but rather a response to years of border trade issues. “The Mexican trucking industry never agreed with the program,” Ojeda said. “The fact is we are open to the United States but they are not open to Mexico.”

According to Ojeda, the cancellation of the border program by Congress and President Barack Obama, who has said he would like to see another program in place soon, is just the latest dustup in a dispute that dates back to 1982. Prior to 1982, Ojeda said, Mexican truckers “were able to go into the United States. In 1982, the Teamsters and other groups started to oppose the entrance to the U.S.”

The Law of Moratorium was then agreed to by the countries, permitting only those Mexican carriers with current permits to continue operating inside the U.S. border, and then only within a 25-mi. commercial zone. Eventually, in 1994, NAFTA was ratified and borders were supposed to be open to promote commerce across North America. The U.S. agreed in 1998, according to Ojeda, to open the border to Mexican trucking fleets. “But the United States did not open its border,” whereas Mexico did, he said.

A NAFTA Tribunal agreed with Mexico in the dispute, ordering the U.S. to open the border in 2001, which Ojeda said the Bush administration indicated it would. Mexican companies then bought equipment to meet stricter U.S. safety rules. “They lost that money,” Ojeda stated.

Ultimately, the Bush administration came up with the cross-border demonstration project in 2007 that allowed registered Mexican carriers to operate inside the border of the U.S. That program was eliminated when Congress passed the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, which Obama signed into law.

Since then, Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood have both said they will work toward putting another program in place. In retaliation for the cancellation of the program, the Mexican government slapped $2.4 billion worth of tariffs on U.S. goods.

While Ojeda said a new program would not necessarily mean the suit would be dropped, it could open the door to negotiations. After all, he pointed out, the Mexican trucking industry just wants what the U.S. trucking industry has – free access.

[source - fleetowner.com]

Mexican truckers sue U.S. over cross-border policy

Rhonda Flathman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:25:18 +0000

Though the Obama administration will soon consider re-opening the U.S.-Mexican border to trucking, thousands of Mexican truckers have filed suit against the U.S. government citing its violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA would have given Mexican truckers limited access to cross in to the U.S. in 1995 with fewer restrictions as time passed. However, the borders have been closed, fueled by fears of losing U.S. jobs and concerns that Mexican trucks did not meet safety regulations.

WASHINGTON — Some Mexican truckers can’t wait for the Obama administration to reinstate cross-border trucking.

Thousands of carriers are suing the U.S. government for reneging on Bush’s policy of opening the border to select Mexican trucking companies.

According to Reuters, about 4,500 trucking companies represented by Canacar, the Mexican trucking association, are suing the U.S. for $6 billion over this country’s refusal to allow Mexican trucks to haul across the border as stipulated by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico put $2.4 billion in punitive tariffs on U.S. exports in March after Congress voted to kill a 2007 cross-border pilot program.

Last month, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the White House is vetting a plan he hopes to take to Congress for clearance in June. His aim is to address the concerns about safety that Congress cited when it cut off funding for the Bush administration’s limited cross-border program.

Under NAFTA, the crossing was supposed to have been opened to border-state traffic in 1995 and to long-distance traffic in 2000. The opening was stalled until 2007, in part by difficult negotiations with Mexico, but mainly by the legislative and legal tactics of U.S. labor, owner-operator and citizen advocacy groups who fear loss of U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers and argue that Mexican trucks will not be safe.

[source - todaystrucking.com]