MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Monday it will increase tariffs on about 90 U.S. products in retaliation for last week's decision to end a pilot program that allowed some Mexican trucks to transport goods in the United States.
Economy Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said the U.S. decision violates a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement that was supposed to have opened cross-border trucking by January 2000.
"We consider this U.S. action to be wrong, protectionist and a clear violation of the treaty," Ruiz Mateos told reporters. "By deciding to protect their trucking industry, they have decided to affect other countries and the region."
The measure will affect about $2.4 billion in trade involving approximately 90 agricultural and industrial products from 40 U.S. states. Ruiz Mateos said the department later this week will publish a list of the products, which he said were chosen to represent a large number of U.S. states and significant trade items.
He did not specify how much tariffs would be increased, but said "the retaliatory measures are the cost the United States is going to have to pay for failing to fulfill its obligations under NAFTA."
The action alarmed Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. Wheat and beef are two of his states top three exports.
"We've got a tough economy. We are going to lose sales, ag sales of exports that we are selling into Mexico and that may well go to other countries," he said. "If you raise (duties), our wheat or beef may not be competitive to Mexico consumers."
Of course, the unions come first. Who needs exports?
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