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 Business News | October 2005 
Fox Talks Up Free Trade, Takes Swipe at US
 Jeremy Hainsworth - Associated Press
| | President of Mexico Vicente Fox toasts Prime Minister Paul Martin during a lunch in Vancouver. (AP Photo/Chuck Stoody, CP) |
Vancouver, British Columbia – Mexican President Vicente Fox criticized the Bush administration on Friday for ignoring a recent NAFTA panel ruling that favored Canada in their long-standing lumber dispute.
Canada, the United States and Mexico are partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, the 11-year-old landmark pact that eliminated tariffs on most products and that has since become the most lucrative trading partnership in the world.
A NAFTA panel on Aug. 10 dismissed Washington's claims that Canadian softwood exports are subsidized by Ottawa and therefore harm the U.S. lumber industry. Washington ignored the ruling, claiming it did not address a 2004 decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission that found in favor of the United States, and pledged to keep imposing punitive tariffs on Canadian lumber imports.
"Mexico regrets any unilateral decision that fails to abide by the decisions of the arbitration panel where trade differences are discussed and aired," Fox said Friday in a speech before the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Though not mentioning President Bush by name, Fox said that when he was last in Texas – where he twice this year met with Bush at his Crawford ranch – he made it clear to the U.S. president that trade disputes had to be settled according to regulations.
"Fair trade governed by rules is the basis for the growth of our economy. Institutions and procedures must be strengthened, not weakened," Fox said.
Fox arrived Thursday in Calgary, the commercial capital of the oil-rich western province of Alberta, for a two-day visit to Canada, accompanied by 30 Mexican businessmen, to hold meetings with leaders in the mining, transport and energy sectors.
Both Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Fox said Washington's moves to ignore NAFTA rulings – despite several rulings of support from the World Trade Organization – could water down the trade pact. The countries must stand united behind NAFTA to remain competitive, especially with the emerging economies of China and India, the two leaders said.
"It has been ignored by the Americans, and that is wrong," said Martin.
Both countries are hoping the visit to Alberta and British Columbia – with two of Canada's hottest economies – will lead to expanded business ties.
Fox said Mexico was working to make his country more attractive to foreign investors, which included further democratic reforms. The Mexican president's election in 2000 ended 71 straight years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had controlled the presidency since its founding in 1929.
Fox often calls his electoral victory the beginning of true Mexican democracy, and many academics at home and overseas generally agree.
"Today, we have genuine competition among the various political parties, which strengthens transparency and reduces corruption," Fox said.
Mexico is the world's sixth largest oil producer and a top supplier of crude to the United States. Fox has said he would propose changes in Mexico's energy laws to allow for private investment in the pipeline network for Pemex, the country's state oil company. The aging pipeline has suffered a series of leaks and deadly explosions.
Fox said the U.S. oil refinery damage wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the Gulf of Mexico coastline has left his country scrambling to look at other markets. |
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