Posted on 05/24/2006 12:11:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox has asked Congress to eliminate a 20 percent tax on corn syrup sweetened soft drinks to abide with a World Trade Organization ruling.
In a presidential decree issued Tuesday, Fox urged legislators to act quickly to avoid U.S. trade reprisals against Mexico.
The Mexican Congress Permanent Commission, which handles matters while the legislature as a whole is on break, turned the request over to the lower house for analysis.
In March, a WTO panel rejected an appeal by Mexico and supported U.S. claims that Mexico was violating international law in imposing a 20 percent tax on drinks that are sweetened with anything other than cane sugar grown in Mexico.
Mexico was a top market for U.S. high-fructose corn syrup before the tax was imposed in 2002. The tax made it too expensive to use the corn sweetener in soft drinks, and today, the U.S. share of the market is about 6 percent of pretax levels, according to the U.S. trade representative's office.
The dispute over sugar and corn sweetener has cost U.S. corn refiners $944 million annually, according to the Washington-based Corn Refiners Association.
Mexico has maintained that the dispute over U.S. high-fructose corn syrup and Mexican sugar will only be entirely resolved when access to their respective markets is settled.
Last year, the United States raised its duty-free sugar quota for Mexico by 275,577 tons. Mexico reciprocated with a similar quota for U.S. high-fructose corn syrup.
But the Mexican government says it wants the United States to open its markets to Mexican sugar even further, as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
only if they let us put soda machines in their schools so their kids get fat like ours.... since we all know big soda is to blame for childhood obesity.
"Utah Minutemen Laurie Lisonbee, left,and Tyler Smith, right, protest on the Utah state Capitol grounds as Mexican President Vicente Fox makes his way to the Utah Legislative building to address the state legislature in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, May 24, 2006. President Fox addressed a joint session of the Utah legislature." (AP Photo by George Frey)
"Utah Minutemen Wally McCormick, left, and Simon Jaynes, right, stand with other protestors on the Utah state capitol grounds as Mexican President Vicente Fox makes his way to the legislative building to address a special session of the Utah State legislature in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, May 24, 2006. Fox said Wednesday that Mexico does not support undocumented migration and that his country must expand economic growth so it is not necessary for people to seek work and benefits across the border." (AP Photo/George Frey)
Damn.
Anybody who's tasted Mexican Coke (capitalized and branded for the Drug Warriors ;) knows that it tastes better than the corn-sweetened alternative we brew here in the US.
So that's why they keep coming over here - for cheaper soft drinks!
Interesting.
"Protesters stand in front of the Utah Governor's mansion during a state dinner for Mexican President Vicente Fox in Salt Lake City, Utah May 23, 2006." NO MAGAZINES, NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT REUTERS/Robert Johnson/Standard Examiner
"Demonstrators protest against Mexican President Vicente Fox and illegal immigration in front of the Governor's Mansion while Fox and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman dine inside Tuesday, May 23, 2006 in Salt Lake City." (AP Photo/Steve C. Wilson)
Hmmm, I've spent time working in Mexico City and never noticed any difference with their soda.
Big agriculture lobbies big govt to put big tax on big shipments of mexican corn syrup to distort big market. Now big agriculture can afford to hire big bunches of illegals to work big corn fields while big govt take big credit for protecting US jobs. Nice racket if you can get in on it.
The only reason we use corn syrup is because of our own protectionist sugar tariffs.
Same way in Canada... sugar, not corn syrup.
Real Dr. Pepper from the Dublin, TX factory... yuuuuummmmm. Make the original way with Imperial sugar.
Nothing better.
It's been a sore point for Mexican sugarcane producers that under NAFTA rules, corn sweetner WAS imported without duties. After a lot of wrangling, there was a tax imposed on corn sweeter. Now Fox wants the tax rolled back.
The only possible connection to immigration is in that NAFTA, and the U.S. agricultural "structure" (both the subsidies and tax credits enjoyed by U.S. producers and the whole corporate setup of U.S. agriculture) are killing Mexican farmers (where small family farms are the norm). Out of work farmers and farm workers (including those in the sugarcane industry) are likely to seek work in the U.S.
Real Dr. Pepper from the Dublin, TX factory... yuuuuummmmm. Make the original way with Imperial sugar.
Too bad the phospheric acid in soda makes your bones weak by disrupting you body's ability to absorb calcium.
You can find Mexican Coca-Cola in the U.S. It comes in those thick glass 12 oz bottles that look as though they've been returned for deposit a couple hundred times. They run about $1.19 - $1.35 per in Chicago.
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