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Mexico mega-port plan key to 'NAFTA superhighways'
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | October 7, 2006

Posted on 10/07/2006 3:56:30 AM PDT by Man50D

WASHINGTON – There are mixed signals coming from Mexico about the fate of a proposed mega-port in Baja California for mainly Chinese goods that would be shipped on rail lines and "NAFTA superhighways" running through the U.S. to Canada.

The port at Punta Colonet, planned as a major container facility to transfer Asian goods into America's heartland, got at least a temporary setback when a Mexican businessman announced a competing project in which he was seeking to secure mineral rights in the area.

Gabriel Chavez, originally one of the principal movers behind the port plan, now says there are significant amounts of titanium and iron to be mined offshore – a project he considers more important than the port.

Mexican ports czar Cesar Patricio Reyes placed a moratorium on further work toward port planning for three or four months while the government explores ways to make everyone happy.

It is no secret the Mexican government is still committed to the port plan. A map from the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies shows the proposed goods route into a North American community.

According to transportation officials in Arizona, one of the sites considered for a rail line from Punta Colonet, the Mexican government has released an official directive stating its intention to create a new marine facility there -- about 150 miles south of the U.S. border.

The port at Punta Colonet, when completed, is expected to rival the biggest West Coast ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, both heavily congested now.

Bringing goods into a Mexican port would mean lower costs for foreign shippers because of cheaper labor and less restrictive environmental regulations.

Hutchison Ports Mexico, a subsidiary of the Chinese company Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., is keeping reports about progress on the venture close to the vest.

Only recently has the port become a source of controversy in the U.S. as Americans begin questioning highway and rail projects criss-crossing the country – many of which are designed to carry product from Mexico to the U.S. and Canada on the so-called "NAFTA superhighways."

Resentment is building inside the U.S. because of what appear to be secretive plans made outside normal government policymaking channels about immigration, border policies, transportation and integration of the three North American nations.

Transportation Secretary Maria Cino has promised to release plans within months for a one-year, NAFTA pilot program permitting Mexican truckers beyond the limited commercial zone to which they are currently restricted.

The program will likely involve about 100 Mexican trucking companies, the Department of Transportation says.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement – NAFTA – the borders were to open partially to truckers from both countries in 1995. Full access was promised by 2000. Because of the restrictions on Mexican trucks, the Mexican government has imposed limits on U.S. truckers.

The U.S. restrictions were placed by the Clinton administration in response to demands from the Teamsters union, which said Mexican trucks posed safety and environmental risks. Currently, the U.S. permits Mexican truckers only in commercial zones close to the border that extend no further than 20 miles from Mexico.

While the American Trucking Association supports opening the border, other unions have joined in opposition with the Teamsters. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association came out this month in opposition to any Mexican truck pilot program.

Todd Spencer, the association's executive vice president, said the program would jeopardize safety on U.S. roads and would lead to an influx of cheap Mexican labor.

"A move by the U.S. Department of Transportation to open U.S. roadways to Mexican trucks puts the interest of foreign trade and cheap labor ahead of everything else, including highway safety, homeland security and the well being of hardworking Americans," Spencer said.

In a letter to the Interstate Trade Commission, Spencer wrote: "The net effect of admission of Mexican trucks into the U.S. marketplace would undoubtedly be negative. The supposed benefits to consumers from speculative reductions in shipping rates would be offset by the societal costs that are difficult to measure, but are easy to identify."

Raising more suspicions that such plans are leading to a future integration of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, a high-level, top-secret meeting of the North American Forum took place this month in Banff – with topics ranging from "A Vision for North America," "Opportunities for Security Cooperation" and "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration."

Despite "confirmed" participants including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Central Intelligence Agency Director R. James Woolsey, former Immigration and Naturalization Services Director Doris Meissner, North American Union guru Robert Pastor, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Energy Secretary and Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and top officials of both Mexico and Canada, there has been no press coverage of the event. The only media member scheduled to appear at the event, according to documents obtained by WND, was the Wall Street Journal's Mary Anastasia O'Grady.

The event was organized by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Canada West Foundation, an Alberta think-tank that promotes closer economic integration with the United States.

The Canadian event is just the latest of a series of meetings, policy papers and directives that have citizens, officials and members of the media wondering whether these efforts represent some sort of coordinated effort to implement a "merger" some have characterized as "NAFTA on steroids."

Last week, government documents released by a Freedom of Information Act request revealed the Bush administration is running what some observers see as a "shadow government" with Mexico and Canada in which the U.S. is crafting a broad range of policy in conjunction with its neighbors to the north and south.


TOPICS: Conspiracy
KEYWORDS: aliens; bluehelmets; canada; cfr; cheaplabor; china; chinesegoods; conspiracy; cuespookymusic; freetrade; globalgovernment; hutchisonwhampoa; icecreammandrake; immigration; kookmagnetthread; mexico; morethorazineplease; nafta; naftaonsteroids; naftasuperhighways; nationalsovereignty; nau; nauconspiracy; northamericanunion; ports; preciousbodilyfluids; puntacolonet; purityofessence; robertpastor; russia; sapandimpurify; shadowgovernment; sovereignty; spp; superstate; teamsters; transtinfoilcorridor; un; unamerican; unitednations; usa; votenader2008; wnd
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CAP Declares 'Enough is Enough!' Bring Canadian Troops Home Now!

September 3,2006

Canadian Action Party Leader Connie Fogal says, "Bring our troops home now! There is no reason to wait until 2007." She concurs with others that immediate withdrawal would send a clear message to the world that Canada is not in the business of cleaning up the mess caused by four years of US bombing of Afghanistan justified as a search for the hiding places of Osama bin Laden. Fogal asks, "Why is Canada even there? Osama bin Laden is not even on any terrorist list in the world. President Bush now says he is no longer interested in finding Osama."

CAP/PAC president Catherine Whelan Costen insists,"'Enough is Enough'! Four more Canadian soldiers are coming home in body bags. Four more deaths without the due honour and respect of a lowered national flag. Four more deaths for the 'mission'! "

CAP Leader Connie Fogal accuses elected Canadian political leaders of preening in their position of puppet to the USA permanent war agenda, unwilling to exercise sovereign Canadian decisions. She says, "In the USA, dissenting opinion is labelled anti- American and unpatriotic. In Canada, dissenting opinion is labelled anti -American and unpatriotic. This is an interesting real commonality in a unified North America. Dissent in Canada and the USA is united and integrated in their view that it is not unpatriotic to oppose bad government. In fact, it is our democratic duty to do so! We are united in our horror of and opposition to blood, carnage and human destruction."

"NO MORE! Not in Our Name'" insists President Whelan Costen. "Canadian patriots will not be told to be quiet while our sons and daughters' lives are sacrificed for corporate profits that feed off the permanent war industry.The Middle East has been destabilized by that agenda"

"The Canadian people did not want to send them and do not wish to wage corporate wars. What did the Afghanistan people or Taliban do to Canada, or what threat do they pose to Canada? Osama bin Laden was created by the U.S., but even if he is more than a stooge, the people of Afghanistan did not commit any acts of aggression against the USA or Canada . You cannot export democracy at the end of a gun barrel!" she continued.

Connie Fogal says, "It is immoral to sacrifice the senseless deaths of our Canadian soldiers (who are bound to follow orders) to a mission Canadians oppose, a mission never explained, a mission that is no service to Canada. Our government is so used to governing by incrementalism and deception that it believes its own lies. "

161 posted on 10/09/2006 6:43:27 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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Canadian Action Party Press Release on Chemtrails.
162 posted on 10/09/2006 6:47:16 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Smartass

Thank you for the pings


163 posted on 10/09/2006 7:56:14 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: Smartass

Thanks for the ping and links!


164 posted on 10/09/2006 8:05:23 PM PDT by ntnychik
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To: Ben Ficklin
There are other ways of "adding value" besides manufacturing.

Based on your concept, we should return to an agricultural economy.

.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1715342/posts?page=121#121

This article is about "die, mold and machine shops open in 1998 had closed by 2004, idling 36 percent of the state's 11,000 metalworks employees. Throughout the industrial Midwest, 1,991 metalworks plants closed and dismissed 80,000 workers in the same years.", not food consumption.

"One area of utmost concern for the Defense Department and defense industry is manufacturing machine tools,''

You don't see anything wrong with "As a result, China supplies as much as 10 percent of the parts for the U.S. Army's M1 Abrams main battle tank," ??????????

You need to go to work for the US State Dept. Join in with them socialists, where you'll feel proud to screw America everyday.

165 posted on 10/09/2006 8:08:55 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Illegal immigration Control and US Border Security - The jobs George W. Bush refuses to do.)
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To: B4Ranch
You may not like it, but the fact is, the world market is strong and growing. And accompanying this strong growth is a increasing level of inter-dependability. It is remarkable, what has developed since Reagan and Thatcher.

As for your example, the metal working industry, I am up to speed on that. Much more so than you. While my industry classification was chemical, it served numerous industry classifications, of which metal was a major componant. My forte was general metal.

If we point at the one thing that has been the most detrimental to the metal working industry, it would have to be plastics.

Next, we would say US Regulatory Law, of which Environmental Regulatory Law would be the most detrimental.

So, as a generalized statement, we would say that the metal working industry is a shrinking industry. This applies worldwide, and no doubt to a higher degree in the US.

While we can certainly track the shrinkage of metal, we can also track the explosive growth of the food manufaturing industry over the same time period. One trip to the grocery store documents that. And yes Virginia, making hamburgers is a manufacturing process, little different from the process of manufacturing wood shutters or ornamental iron. In fact, Burger King's process is conveyorized.

Now let me return to US regulatory law, or more appropriately, US regulatory "takings".

It is obvious that NAFTA, and other trade agreements, are the one best tool for "working around" regulatory law, whether that reg is in the US, Canada, Mexico, or any nation that participates in the many trade agreements being made thru-out the world. The irony is that you are in lockstep with Public Citizen when it comes to social justice, the AFL-CIO on labor protections, and Earth Justice on the enviro issues. And as this thread points out, Global Research.

In the 19th and 20th century, the agricultural economy gave way to the industrial economy. This was accompanied by a surge of populism/protectionism seeking to forestall the inevitable.

In the 20th and the 21st century, we see the same thing as the industrial economy gives way to the information economy. You backward looking populists/protectionists are no different from those of a 100 years ago.

You can't go back.

166 posted on 10/10/2006 5:16:40 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: 1rudeboy

I also love how when you point out the very obvious, at least to me, flaws in this conspiracy BS, that immediately makes one part of the "OBL group" of FR.

I guess that since we aren't kooks, don't believe the book that Corsi is writing ERRRRRRR articles he's writing, don't believe everything Buchanan says, don't listen to WorldNutDaily, etc, that means we want open borders.


167 posted on 10/10/2006 6:55:30 AM PDT by MikefromOhio (Golden Eagle defends scum like Bill Gates and Fred Phelps. And he does it willingly.)
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To: MikefromOhio

It's not even a logical fallacy (or if it is, it's a particularly lame one). It's more of a pathology. "You disagree with me, therefore you are an open-border lover." [shaking head]


168 posted on 10/10/2006 7:01:49 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy; MikefromOhio

Is this a lefty Canadian website? The U.S. Embassy in Canada.

http://canada.usembassy.gov/

Have you read the Council on Foreign Relations task force report that is posted on their site? The title of the report is "Building a North American Community". Is this lefty or righty?

http://canada.usembassy.gov/content/can_usa/northamericancommunity_TF_final.pdf#search=%22nafta%20office%20inter-american%20affAIRS%20john%20cornyn%22


169 posted on 10/10/2006 7:24:18 AM PDT by texastoo ("trash the treaties")
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To: texastoo
Good Lord. I am reminded nearly every day that I'm one of the few people that has bothered to read it. Why don't you ask the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa why it's posting CFR papers on its website, instead of assuming it's evidence of conspiracy? Maybe you can even get it to remove the link, in which case Jerome Corsi will be provided material for at least a dozen more World Net Daily columns. I can see it now: "Embassy Secretly Removes Secret Evidence of Secret Conspiracy."
170 posted on 10/10/2006 7:31:06 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Ben Ficklin; 1rudeboy; B4Ranch; hedgetrimmer; Smartass; Paul Ross; Czar
And yes Virginia, making hamburgers is a manufacturing process, little different from the process of manufacturing wood shutters or ornamental iron. In fact, Burger King's process is conveyorized.

Don't even think that I am going to argue with you. Believe it or not I agree that the U.S. is the #1 manufacturer of hamburgers.

Rudeboy, I consider you the expert of experts on posting charts. Could you please post a chart telling us if the U.S. is still #1 manufacturing meatballs since the 1980's?

171 posted on 10/10/2006 7:39:38 AM PDT by texastoo ("trash the treaties")
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To: texastoo

Actually, I don't think the U.S. counts fast-food processing as manufacturing. Making hamburger patties at the meat-packing plant probably is, however. The whole "burger-flipping is manufacturing" thing was a John Kerry campaign theme.


172 posted on 10/10/2006 7:46:43 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Ben Ficklin
As a citizen I worry when I see socialism creeping forward in a nation with our freedoms.

Our economy has been doing very well, all considered. However as an investor have no wish to go backwards. I do tend to keep an eye on long term forecasts. I do get concerned when I see the indications of recession starting because it means that I have to do major reshuffling to stay ahead of the game.

Please take the time to read what is posted below.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1716494/posts

Excerpts:

A recent Merrill Lynch economic report said that as much as half of the nation's economic growth is related to housing sales, construction and spending from home equity loans.

"The worry here is that a housing decline will have a disproportionate impact on the American consumer," said Gordon B. Fowler, chief investment officer at Glenmede Trust Co., a Philadelphia money management firm.

"Prices went up so much in recent years that now as they come down, it could have a recessionary impact."

Another warning sign is that new-car sales are down about 5 percent from a year ago. This has happened six times over the past 40 years, and in every instance the economy was either lapsing into recession or already in recession.

Perhaps even more troubling is the so-called inversion of the bond yield curve.

Average investors might not understand this issue because it is a bit technical, but market pros place a lot of significance on the difference between short- and long-term U.S. Treasury yields.

Generally, investors demand a higher interest rate yield on, say, a 10-year U.S. Treasury bond than on the shorter-term bonds, to compensate for the risk of higher inflation and interest rates later.

However, in recent months the yields have inverted. The 10-year Treasury note ended the quarter with a yield of 4.63 percent, with the 2-year note slightly higher with a yield of 4.68 percent.

A recession has followed seven out of the last eight times that the yield curve has inverted.

173 posted on 10/10/2006 7:58:46 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Illegal immigration Control and US Border Security - The jobs George W. Bush refuses to do.)
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To: texastoo
Here's the best I can do:


174 posted on 10/10/2006 8:04:38 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy; Ben Ficklin
From Ben Ficklin:

And yes Virginia, making hamburgers is a manufacturing process, little different from the process of manufacturing wood shutters or ornamental iron. In fact, Burger King's process is conveyorized.

From Rudeboy:

Actually, I don't think the U.S. counts fast-food processing as manufacturing. Making hamburger patties at the meat-packing plant probably is, however. The whole "burger-flipping is manufacturing" thing was a John Kerry campaign theme.

Well, I'll let you two have at it. May the best man win.

175 posted on 10/10/2006 8:06:05 AM PDT by texastoo ("trash the treaties")
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To: texastoo
What are you some sort of Fiddler on the Roof-type matchmaker? Why don't you ask Ben what he meant first? Jeez, some people . . . .
176 posted on 10/10/2006 8:10:07 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Thanks for the chart. I wonder what we manufacture that a tortilla is a component?

Are you saying that hamburgers and meatballs are manufactured?


177 posted on 10/10/2006 8:19:05 AM PDT by texastoo ("trash the treaties")
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To: texastoo
My understanding is that (and this is very important: according to the U.S. government),
Acme pre-packaged meatballs = yes,
Subway meatball sandwhich = debatable but currently no, and
Meatballs at Mom's house = no.

178 posted on 10/10/2006 8:25:41 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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ugh . . . sandwich

As for tortillas, I don't know how they're made. But I gather one grinds-up some corn or whatever, adds ingredients, forms it somehow, and then bakes. That process can be called "manufacturing," especially if the tortillas are mass-produced somehow.

179 posted on 10/10/2006 8:28:34 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Ben Ficklin
And accompanying this strong growth is a increasing level of inter-dependability.

Kofi sends his love.

180 posted on 10/10/2006 8:30:09 AM PDT by texastoo ("trash the treaties")
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