Posted on 09/05/2006 1:19:23 PM PDT by Trupolitik
Panama is planning to build a deeper, wider Panama Canal to allow Communist Chinese super-containerships carrying cheap 21st century slave-labor under-market goods to have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and key NAFTA/CAFTA ports such as Miami.
In the shipping industry, Panamex container ships are defined as those that are able to fit through the 1,000-foot long and 110-foot wide canal. Typically, Panamex containerships were designed to carry 4,500 TEU (“Twenty Foot Units,” the length measurement of the standard ocean steel container). The first generation of post-Panamex container ships was built to carry up to 9,800 TEU. Today, a new class of super-post-Panamex vessels is under construction, designed to carry up to 12,500 TEU.
Panama President Martin Torrijos has decided to put to referendum a $6 billion project to build new locks in the Panama Canal sufficiently deep and wide to accommodate post-Panamex ships. President Bush, when visiting Panama during November 2005, supported the plan to expand and modernize the Panama Canal, a plan now estimated to cost $10 billion. Critics such as the Council on Hemispheric Affairs have argued that the cost of expanding the Panama Canal could be as high as $25 billion. As we have noted previously, port operations at both ends of the Panama Canal are already being operated by the Communist Chinese company Hutchinson Ports.
In 2003, west coast ports handled approximately 80% of the more than $100 billion imported from China, with Atlantic ports accounting for about 19% and Gulf Coast ports picking up the extra 1%. As noted by Michael Bomba of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin, “the volume of Chinese import trade handled by East Coast ports has more than doubled between 2000 and 2003, with the largest jump occurring in 2002, when shippers began to search for alternative routes.” In the shipping industry, the Longshoreman Union’s west coast strike is widely quoted as a reason importers of goods from China have sought to open up Mexican ports and a variety of east coast ports (including New York, Newark, and the Port of Virginia centered on Norfolk) as an alternative ports of entry.
In 1998, the state of Florida created FTAA Florida Inc., a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation primarily to promote Miami’s bid to become the headquarters of a planned FTAA secretariat. Governor Jeb Bush sits on the FTAA Florida Inc. board and the Florida legislature funds half of the organization’s annual $1.3 million budget. As recently as the Fourth Summit of the Americas held at Mar de Plata in Argentina in November 2005, the Bush Administration has continued to push for reviving a Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative.
Describing CAFTA as a “stepping stone toward FTAA, the Port of Miami’s website describes the port as the “Cargo Gateway of the Americas.” Even though the website emphasizes that “the conventional wisdom is that the increased volume will mainly be U.S. exports,” the text acknowledges the importance to the Port of Miami of imports from Asia:
The shift in Asian trade to East Coast ports via all-water routes through the Suez and Panama canals, however, resulted in the Far East being the fastest-growing region for the port in 2005, reflecting an increase of 34.96% over fiscal 2004. Trade with Asian countries represented 22.71% of the total tonnage handled at the Port of Miami during 2005, second only to South America, which accounted for 23.42% of total trade.
Even as port improvements in Miami are being billed as preparing for NAFTA, CAFTA, and FTAA, the driving force is the steadily increasing flood of imports anticipated from China. The true winner of NAFTA, CAFTA, and FTAA (should it ever come to be) is China, not Mexico or Honduras, or any other NAFTA, CAFTA, or FTAA trade partner. The day under-market goods made by 21st century slave labor in China are restricted from entry into the U.S. market is the day the enthusiasm for super-post-Panamex containerships in Miami will collapse.
Many of the european shipping lines are building them too.
Exactly.
Thank You Jimmy "Craphead" Carter!
I don't have any problem with the Chinese modifying the canal. Let the Chinese pay to widen the canal. It'll benefit all of us, and it increases their dependence on the west.
Of course the "slave labor" is another issue, but you can make that argument about everything the Chinese do. It really comes down to how you define "slave labor." If you want to construe it strictly, then everyone in China is a slave.
The kook sees a conspiracy behind everything.
In general I belive protectionists believe anyone anywhere that sells a product for less than someone else is committing the crime of theft.
There's no way a wider Panama Canal would be a bad thing. Corsi doesn't like trade with China, but he doesn't really like much of anything.
I'm waiting for the follow-up rant against the Canal from his evil twin sister, Phyllis Schlafly.
Since they are running the Canal, they may not actually "pay" to do the widening. Perhaps they will simply charge increased fees to transit to pay its way. And use their slave labor to do it...putting a couple more hundred thousand of their forces on the isthmus...
This China-Mexico-USA-WalMart sh!t only gets worse and worse and stupider. These are very big plans along with NAFTA superhighways. My bet is the USD crashes before this infrastructure is built out and we don't have the money to buy all this China crap.
I heard WalMart will pay to widen the canal and it's going to be renamed Sam's Canal Club
You provide an excellent example of a hysterical rant so typical of these types of threads.
Hutchinson Ports is the port operator. They don't operate the canal. Panama operates the Canal. And the Chinese have not brought over several hundred thousand slave laborers to run their operations. The employees are Panamanians. Nor have they brought over any military.
None of those facts are important when you've got a good rant going, though.
LOL! Paul knows as much about the Canal as he does about the Federal Reserve.
It's very common for those who have the strongest opinions to be among the least informed.
I didn't say they had. Yet.
The employees are Panamanians. Nor have they brought over any military.
Oh, yeah, written in stone I'm sure.
Pot, meet kettle.
You'll be sorry. You'll ALL be sorry. LOL!
putting a couple more hundred thousand of their forces on the isthmus...
What does the word "more" mean to you?
The fact is that you're wrong. Soaking up John Birch propaganda is a good way to ensure that you'll continue to be wrong.
More means more than they already had.
What happened to the several hundred thousand Chinese troops in the Bahamas? That was a favorite theme of the nutbag crowd for several months.
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