really checking on what is in all these sealed containers from China and Mexico, eventually shipped in-bond to Kansas City SmartPort and other inland “customs ports” (called NAIPN[1] -- now a subcommittee of NASCO[2] -- on the North American Super Corridor Coalition’s website:   http://www.nascocorridor.com/naipn/pages/about.html).

     Foreign containers will be checked only electronically at the Mexican-U.S. border by the mostly unproven Sentri system (Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspections.)   Such electronic checking of potentially dangerous cargo through U.S. customs cannot even begin to replace the accuracy and thoroughness of hand inspections traditionally used by U.S. Customs officials, but with the volume of containers entering the U.S., thorough inspections seem not to be the priority.  No, the volume of foreign manufactured products is the No. 1 priority, as if we U.S. citizens were in dire need of all the tainted toothpaste, dangerous toys, toxic tomatoes and other deficient products and millions of worthless gadgets being spewed out in foreign nations with inadequate quality control, safety and environmental standards, or oversight!  (If any standards exist, they are largely ignored for fear U.S. corporations will shut down their plants and move elsewhere.)

     “The DOT is doing a poor job of inspecting American trucks, with only 40 percent inspected,” reported Clayton Reid in America Under Invasion…by Mexican  Trucks, September 6, 2007 (Newsmax.com).  “How are they going to inspect trucks in Mexico?  The DEA constantly finds Mexican trucks smuggling drugs, human beings and who knows what kind of contraband.  There is massive organized criminal smuggling activity going on at the border.” 

     It is the vast bulk of American citizenry who are being victimized and deceived and are paying the price of rapidly rising prices and poor (even deadly) quality of  foreign goods.  “If al-Qaida gets into this mix,” warned Reid,  “We will have a nightmare. You could have nuclear weapons, dirty bombs or terrorists in those trucks, and no one would ever know.”

          CNN’s Bill Tucker explained on Lou Dobbs’ May 28 show:  “…according to the Texas Department of Transportation, three-quarters of all the traffic from Mexico to the United States comes across the Texas border and all that traffic they say needs to be accommodated somehow and, Lou, it’s hard for an imaginary road to accommodate that much real traffic.”

     Lou Dobbs summed up a major source of disinformation aimed at the public:  “It’s what happens when you have, let’s say, so-called mainstream journalists in what I would call Napoleonic denial.  They’re laughable.  They are so arrogant in their ignorance of these issues and yet the little delititions (ph.) step in to it as if they know something.

    “They think it’s like they’re political reporting that they can simply bring an impressionistic brush across the sweep and that that will pass for facts.”

     For real facts on this subject, see Kansas Legislation and Special Reports at the top of

www.stopsmartport.com.

---End of article---

Notes:

1.     NAIPN = North American Inland Ports Network.   

2.     NASCO = North American Super Corridor Coalition.

Colleen - 

1 - Since the values are in millions, you need to add 6 digits to the end.

The first digit is the 9, so it would be $5,854,900,000.

2 - The trade balance is calculated by taking exports minus imports. If

imports are larger, that would be a trade deficit.

3 - We do not have percent changes calculated as part of our statistics,

but it would be pretty easy to calculate from the data on these pages:

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/index.html

The formula for percent change is: (Current value minus previous value)

divided by previous value.

For example, using imports from China:

2007 (Current): $321,442.9

1994 (Previous): $38,786.8

(321,442.9 - 38,786.8)/38,786.8 = 7.287, or 728.7%

Joe Kafchinski

US Census Bureau - Foreign Trade Division

Direct - 301-763-6956 :: Office - 301-763-2311

http://www.census.gov/trade

(The first free trade agreement in North American was signed by the U.S. under President G.H.W. Bush with Canada. The CUSFTA was the beginning of even larger regional trading blocs. After just five years, on January 1, 1994, the CUSFTA was replaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which includes Mexico. (See 1994—North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Creating the World’s Largest Free Trade Area.)

MAQUILADORAS: A PREVIEW OF NAFTA

Adapted from a Maquila Solidarity Network pamphlet, June 1995

Although foreign-owned maquiladora assembly plants were operating in the Mexico/US border region three decades before the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the maquiladora experience was a preview of what free trade held in store for the Mexican people.

What began as an exceptional program restricted to the border region, eventually became the core of the Mexican government's export-led economic development strategy. Under the program, foreign-owned companies are allowed to import component parts to be assembled by Mexican workers, and then to re-export the finished product almost duty-free.

Today, close to 4,000 maquiladora assembly plants employ an estimated 900,000 Mexican workers producing everything from auto parts to television sets to "docker" jeans. Though we tend to think of maquilas as low-tech sweat shops, many of the newer maquila factories employ state-of-the-art technology.

While 81 percent of Mexico's maquila plants are located in industrial parks along its 3,000 mile border with the US, increasingly multinational corporations are setting up maquilas in the interior of the country. Since the signing of NAFTA, there has also been an increase in foreign investment in garment production for export in southern Mexico. Many Mexicans fear that NAFTA could make the whole country into a maquila zone.

The names of the companies that have shifted or contracted parts of their production to the maquila zones are familiar to all of us - General Electric, Zenith, Honeywell, General Motors, Matsushita (Panasonic), Chrysler, Hallmark Cards, General Electric, Ford Motor, Panasonic, Sonyo, Mattel, Hasbro, Hyundai, Converse, etc.

Although some Canadian firms have invested in Mexico's maquilas, particularly in the autoparts sector, most maquilas are US- or Japan-owned. Recently, there has also been an increase in Korean investment in the Tijuana area. However, the fact that many US-based multinationals, such as General Motors and Ford, now produce in both Canada and Mexico means that our future is directly tied with the fate of Mexican workers and communities.

“In 1994 the United States had a `1.3-billion-dollar trade surplus with Mexico.  Ten years later it has become a 45-billion-dollar trade deficit,” writes Senator Byron Dorgan (D., S.D.) in his book, Take this Job and Ship It.  “And still, some argue it is a success.  Not for us it isn’t.”