Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) — North American economies must better integrate or risk falling further behind in competitiveness with Europe and Asia, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said.
“North America has been losing market share in world exports,” Calderon said today at the Economic Club of New York. “We in North America are losing time.”
Calderon called on the U.S. earlier this week to preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying Sept. 23 that any renegotiation may be harmful. He said today that Mexico, which sells 80 percent of its exports to the U.S., is diversifying more toward Europe and Latin America.
U.S. critics of free trade have been more vocal this year as confidence in the economy erodes, and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said Nafta should be changed to include labor and environmental standards.
Calderon also said the U.S. and Mexico need to improve security and efficiency at their shared border, and that border control hasn’t improved since Nafta came into effect.
“We need to diminish the transportation and logistical costs,” said Calderon, who received a standing ovation at the end of his speech. “This is how Nafta can improve.”
Pemex Proposal
Calderon also urged Mexico’s Congress to vote on his proposal to give state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos more leeway to hire private and foreign companies. The president says his bill will help the company invest to reverse declining oil output. He said today that Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA was an example of a successful state-controlled company.
“Of course, it’s a very sensitive issue. In political terms, it’s like a capital sin to talk about it,” he said, provoking laughter from a roomful of bankers, investors and diplomats at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
“Take a decision,” he said in reference to Congress. “We don’t have time to waste. We’re losing capability of production.”
Pemex on Sept. 22 said that crude oil output fell 9.2 percent to 2.834 million barrels a day in the first eight months of the year. Declining output is costing 275 billion pesos ($26 billion) in sales this year and threatening Mexico’s budget, as 40 percent of the government’s revenue comes from Pemex royalties.
Congress may vote on the issue as soon as next month. Calderon submitted his initiative in April.
Fighting Drug Cartels
The president said he will continue to use the army, navy and federal police to enforce the law. Since taking power in late 2006, Calderon has sent tens of thousands of soldiers to regions where violence is escalating as drug cartels are battling for territory.
“Everyday I dream of a safer Mexico,” Calderon said.
Groups such as Human Rights Watch have criticized the government’s policy of using the military to fight drug traffickers in civilian areas, pointing out rights violations committed by the military.
They advocated for the U.S. to include conditions to help prevent abuses in a $400 million anti-drug aid package for Mexico, known as the Merida Initiative, that was approved in June. U.S. lawmakers agreed to partly soften those conditions after Mexican officials objected.
“If the U.S. government is going to engage in a multi-year partnership with Mexico, the government has to ensure it’s not giving a blank check to abusive security forces,” said Tamara Taraciuk, researcher on Mexican issues for Human Rights Watch in Washington.
Mexico’s president, speaking yesterday at the United Nations General Assembly, urged all countries to work together to prevent violence committed by organized crime gangs.
Mexican drug cartels have grown powerful on profits from selling marijuana, cocaine and heroin to U.S. users. Violence related to trafficking has resulted in almost 3,300 killings this year, including the assassination of about 300 policemen.
Bloomberg | Fabiola Moura and Jens Erik Gould | Thursday, September 25, 2008
[VIA ]
Another country we should invade!!! It has been Felipe and Mexico that have allowed theese problems to occur…. We should go donw there and force that scum Felipe to have FAIR DEMOCRATIC elections… Oh wait … Because of the liberal nutjobs ACORN we don’t even have them here….
David Rockefeller and his CFR evil henchmen wrote the articles for the NAU. I would call it Bush’s marching orders to bring our hemisphere in line with the NWO.
So here’s how I see it.
This Texan says you can take your RIIA, Bohemian Grove, Skull & Bones, Bilderberg Group, CFR, Trilateral Commission, AIPAC, TTC, NAU, SPP, Patriot Acts, and NWO deals and shove it up your Zionist ass or Zionist NWO Rothschild’s ass. As his Father and Grandfather, President Bush is a TRAITOR and in violation of the Logan Act. This Texan wants nothing to do with Bush’s hidden agenda and secret societies. We will fight your
Zionist NWO efforts because you bring chains to
We the People’s
FREEDOM.
A Majority of US Politicians are NWO owned & are in violation of the LOGAN ACT. They are powerless unless the Bilderberg Group or CFR tell them what to do. They are all TRAITORS to We the People, Bill of Rights and US Constitution. Their legislation flawed as they lie to get elected and never do what they were elected to do. The Logan Act should be prosecuted against all US politicians who are members of any secret societies meeting behind closed doors. If convicted ban from politics for life.
The MSM is 5 corporations all ruled by Zionist NWO Neocons owed by Zionist NWO Necons Corporations G.E., Time Warner, Walt Disney, News Corp, & CBS. Break them up with the Sherman Antitrust Law & Clayton Acts. If our US Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches weren’t Bilderberg and CFR owned they could enforce our laws. Oh! their buying their way out of chaos. We’re coming for you first TRAITORS of We the People, Bill of Rights, and US Constitution.
The only course for resolution is REVOLUTION.
What Patriot Act 2 gave us.
WARNING: Due to Presidential Executive Orders the National Security Agency (NSA) may have read this email without probable cause, warrant or notice. And now the government is permitted to listen to you via your own cell phone even when it is turned off. Under executive Orders to the NSA, and US District Court rulings for the FBI, either agency may do this without any judicial or legislative review or oversight.