Mexico Trucking Dispute Agreement Reached

President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon have reached an agreement to resolve the dispute over cross-border trucking. The dispute erupted in March 2009 when Mexico placed higher tariffs on an estimated US$2.4 billion of US goods after the US Congress cut off funding to renew a pilot program that let a limited number of Mexican trucking companies to haul freight beyond a 25-mile US commercial zone.

Mexico had instituted tariffs in retaliation for the United States not complying with the trucking provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The provision was supposed to become effective in December 1995. Half of the US$2.4 billion in Mexican retaliatory tariffs are to be lifted as soon as the agreement is finalized. The remainder of the tariffs will be lifted when the necessary safety tests are completed and the first Mexican truck rolls across the U.S. border, according to a statement from the American Farm Bureau Federation. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.

EU to lower important duty on wheat and barley

In response to the escalating cost of wheat and barley, the European Commission (EC) has proposed suspending import duty on these cereals, the Financial Times reports. This would allow feed manufacturers to obtain cheaper raw materials and ease their financial burden, while the EC also expects it will help to calm domestic markets.

The EC told the newspaper that the decision to reduce import duty was made "to help facilitate feed cereals imports from outside the EU and so reduce tensions on the European markets". The goal of reducing grain-import duties would be to “help facilitate feed cereals imports from outside the EU and so to reduce tensions on the European markets,” the commission said. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.