Manufacturers Warn of Mexican Tariff Retaliation

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) warned March 19 of the damage that could result from the announcement that the government of Mexico will impose tariffs on U.S. exports in retaliation for U.S. refusal to honor cross-border trucking provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"We are very concerned with the damage to the U.S. manufacturing industry and their employees that would be caused by these increased tariffs,” Frank Vargo, NAM's vice- president for international economic affairs, said in a statement. “This unfortunate action was taken in response to cancellation by the U.S. government, as part of the 2009 Omnibus Bill, of the Cross Border Trucking Pilot Program. The Pilot Program was an effort by the U.S. government to come into compliance with a 2001 NAFTA commitment. Cancellation of the program led to the announcement by the Mexican government of retaliatory tariffs on $2.4 billion of U.S. products that are exported to Mexico. Of that, almost 85 percent is manufactured goods, so the NAM has a very strong interest in this issue."

Vargo continued, "Mexico is our second largest export market, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs depend on those export sales. This comes at a time when U.S. industry can least afford lost sales and competitiveness in important global markets. This is the worst possible time to send a signal to our closest trading partners that the United States does not take its commitments seriously."

The NAM will work with Congress and the Administration for a quick resolution to this dispute, Vargo said, so that the sales of U.S. goods are not put at risk.