The NAFTA Desk

I’ve decided that the time is right to dedicate an ENTIRE blog just my internship. Brace yourself people, here it comes.

Things have gotten pretty intense in my office this past week because there’s been some important stuff going down. I’m gonna explain the wholestory (which may or may not be boring to those reading – I apologize inadvance), because otherwise it’s hard to understand. Plus I think it’sinteresting, and I honestly never thought I would be so interested in such things until now.

Now keep in mind that obviously my views on the whole thing are slightly swayed due to working at the Mexican Embassy (vs., for example, the US Embassy in Mexico where I’m sure the interns have very different opinions)… oh and also a side note, nothing in this blog is representative of the Embassy of Mexico, or it’s positions, it’s is all just based on what I’ve read, learned and personal opinion (I figure I should throw that in there seeing as the last thing I wanna do at my internship is find myself speaking for the Embassy).

Anyways, I’ll keep it relatively short and sweet…

Ok, so first of all, over the past few years there has been a program through NAFTA called the Demonstration Program. It allowed for Mexican trucks to cross over the US border, without being subject to having to unload, reload, switch companies, etc. (which previously had to be done by the trucks). This program, over the 2 years it was in function, saved Mexican trucking companies A LOT of time, and therefore money, and therefore also saved money for US consumers that were buying the products being brought across the border.

Anyways, the recently passed Omnibus Bill ended this Demonstration Program, forcing Mexican truckers back to the “old ways”…for obvious reasons this was not a very popular decision, especially amongst Mexican truckers. Also, one of the sections of NAFTA called for open borders for truckers by 2000; seeing as it is 2009, and things are now going in reverse, this is not really in accordance to what was put forth in NAFTA.

Bottom line, this week Mexico introduced import tariffs on 90 US goods as a means of trade retribution for the cancellation of the Demonstration Program. This is kind of a big deal. I don’t really know how else to put it. Once this list was put out and I was able to see the goods, my supervisor let me know that a bunch of the stats that we were doing at the very start of my internship (when I was still on the fence about whether I made the right internship placement choice or not), were actually used byMexican officials when they were deciding which goods to place tariffs on. This is also kind of a big deal, and I’m feeling pretty good about myself and my internship, if I may say so.

I’m not sure what’s gonna happen next, but I do know that Obama has told Congress to draft up a new program that will work for both countries. I personally don’t understand the problem with the old one…especially seeing the main argument brought up by Congress in a hearing I watched online yesterday was the safety issues involved. I understand that safety is extremely important, but no serious issues occurred during the program, AND the inspections on Mexican trucks were completed in Mexico by US inspectors…soooooo, I’m not really understanding the whole argument. Plus,if you look at the standards required by Canadian trucks vs. those required by Mexican trucks, the Mexican trucks have to comply with so much more, its crazy.

Anyways, I really hope this whole trade retribution tariff thing leads to some action by the US government…if not, then over the long run I don’t think it will be good for Mexico either because obviously the price of the goods tariffed will rise. It seems to be a lose-lose situation over the long run so I hope something will happen, and I really hope that something will happen while I’m still here in DC because it’s definitely cool to be here, and interning at the Embassy of Mexico with this type of stuff happening.

Moral of the blog posting, for those of you thinking of coming to DC, and have actually read this far, you never know what might happen at your internship. At the beginning, I was definitely not feeling overly thrilled about my placement, but over time I have come to love it…especially this week after realizing that my work is important, really important. If Iwas still in Canada right now I probably would have heard a quick blurb about tariffs on the news, and nothing more. By being in DC I have become extremely interested in the whole issue, and have the chance to learn and experience more than I ever thought would be possible. Hopefully that doesn’t sound too cheesy; I hate cheesy.

As always, paz!