More "free trade"

[LAK]

... and more trucks, trains and goods coming via Mexico. If some are not already, american truck drivers can expect to be making enough money to live on baloney sandwiches in the near future. Not to mention the security risk for cargo and people flowing via chinese shipping and mexican land transport directly into the USA.

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http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/massive_port_grab.html

CHINAS MASSIVE PORT GRAB
Communists Positioning China To Dominate Trade in Americas
By Mark Anderson

American Free Press has confirmed that the huge Chinese shipping conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. has a significant presence at the Lazaro Cardenas seaport in Mexico, as well as other Mexican ports. The company has had effective control of both ends of the Panama Canal for the last seven years.

The Mexican ports link to the budding Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) toll road network by way of railroad cargo lines that head from the ports across Mexico to the United States border, providing a conduit to bypass U.S. West Coast seaports and haul ever-more massive quantities of imports into the United States.

The TTC is part of a planned vast network of tollways that, unless derailed by a growing number of concerned citizens, will ripple through many parts of the United States, functioning as a delivery network for goods flooding into the United States from foreign factories, although it appears U.S.-made goods would be exported via the same system.

Hutchison Whampoas Pacific Port at Lazaro Cardenas, located in the Mexican state of Michoacan, is especially significant. As reported by AFP on Dec. 18, 2006, officials from Lazaro Cardenas met in March 2006 with Kansas City, Mo., officials to sign an historic cooperative trade agreement to establish a new trans-Pacific trade corridor that will alleviate delays and congestion at [U.S.] West Coast ports.

This is another way of saying that at least part of the stream of imported merchandise flowing into those West Coast ports such as the one in Long Beach, Calif., could be redirected to the Cardenas port so these goods can be hauled into the United States with even greater efficiency.

Kansas City, located about 1,000 miles from the U.S.- Mexican border, has been slated as a major trade hub and U.S. Customs inspection location. As noted by Kansas City SmartPort Inc. President Chris Gutierrez, who was interviewed in early December by AFP, Kansas City has the infrastructure, location and overall assets to serve this function well.

Critics charge that having a major U.S. inspection point so far inland may create huge gaps in monitoring exactly what kinds of things are being shipped into the United Stateswhich doesnt sit well with American trucker-support groups such as Owner-Operated Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

OOIDA warns that under-trained Mexican truck drivers, in their poorly inspected trucks, pose a danger on the highways and could help bring terrorist elements into the United States.

According to Hutchison Whampoas own web site, this shipping conglomerate has a single-berth terminal situated in the highly industrial, deep-water Lazaro Cardenas port and plans a second phase there, which includes the development of an 85-hectare deep-water, green field site with 1,350 meters of berth.

Hutchison Whampoa, which controls 12% of all container port capacity in the world and employs 200,000 people, has long been alleged to be either an arm of the Chinese military or beholden to the communist regimewhich considers the United States an adversary. This situation has troubled prominent Americans, such as the now deceased Adm. Thomas H Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who pointed out some years ago that Hutchison Whampoa already controls the Atlantic and Pacific seaports of the Panama Canalthat century-old American-made commercial waterway connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific that has a military function and is arguably one of the most strategic chokepoints on the globe.

So, against the backdrop of Chinas current massive military build-up, the communist nations presence in various Western Hemisphere ports should be watched very carefully. This buildup, as repeatedly emphasized by Gus Stelzer, a retired General Motors executive, author and trade analyst, is funded to a large extent by the huge profits China makes selling goods tariff-free in the United States.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to run gargantuan trade deficits with China. As a proposed remedy, Stelzer advocates levying tariffs against China and other nations whose merchandise floods America while American industries, undercut by the onslaught, are forced to downsize, close or go offshore in order to survive.

Rarely, if ever, are American goods allowed to be sold in these nations anywhere near the extent that their goods are sold in the United States, says Stelzer.

OTHER VENTURES

Notably, Hutchison Whampoaa company whose affiliates delve into the cruise ship business, telecommunications, real estate, hotels, PARKnSHOP grocery stores, Fortress electronics and housewares, along with energy, infrastructure, etc.has a number of other Western Hemisphere port operations.

Hutchison Whampoa has the Ensenada International Terminal (EIT), strategically situated 110 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexico border along the Pacific Ocean, Hutchison Whampoa literature states. It adds that EIT has undergone extensive redevelopment involving construction, dredging and new equipment purchases.

Another port maintained by Hutchison Whampoa is the Terminal Internacional de Manzanillo (TIMSA), which started its operations in 1999 and is aimed at developing the container market on Mexicos Pacific coast. Located at the Mexican port of Manzanillo, TIMSA is ideally situated for Asian trade with Mexico City and Guadalajara, as well as nearby industrialized states, according to Hutchison Whampoas web site.

Hutchison Whampoas Panama Ports Company (PPC) operates the ports of Cristobal and Balboa located at each end of the Panama Canal (large expansion projects are proceeding at both ports).

The shipping companywhich has 15 mainland China operationsalso runs a Western Hemisphere port in Buenos Aires, consisting of a state-of-the-art terminal with two ship berths, a container freight station and a logistics center; as well as in the Bahamas, where Hutchison Whampoas Freeport Container Port, a deepwater operation, provides a transhipment center for the eastern seaboard of the Americas and the principal East/West line haul routes throughout the region, according to company literature.

COMMUNIST CONNECTIONS

Hutchison Whampoas top executives include Li Tzar Kuoi, aged 41, who has been an executive director since 1995 and deputy chairman since 1999. Kuoi also sits on what is called the Standing Committee of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference of the Peoples Republic of China.

The top Hutchison Whampoa executive, Li Ka Shing, is considered the wealthiest Chinese individual in the world. Kuoi, named above, is Li Ka Shings eldest son.

According to the Internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Li was invited by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to become a member of the board of directors of the China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC) to support the economic reform initiatives that Deng was attempting to develop.

CITIC is Chinas largest conglomerate and is 42% owned by the government of China. It serves as the chief investment arm of Chinas central government and holds ministry status on the Chinese State Council. Li served only one year on CITICs board before resigning his directorship. For many years, he served as vice chairman of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC).

Various reports over the last few years, including a NewsMax.com report of June 13, 2001, note that Hutchison Whampoas subsidiary, HIT, has business ventures with the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) which is owned by the Peoples Liberation Army. HIT stands for Hutchison International Terminals.

COSCO, which failed in a notorious Clinton administration- backed attempt to lease the former U.S. naval base in Long Beach, Calif., has been criticized for shipping Chinese missiles, missile components, jet fighters and other weapons technologies to nations such as Libya, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, NewsMax reported in 2001.

American Free Press reporter Mark Anderson can be reached at truthhound2@yahoo.com Watch future AFP issues for more on Americas welcome acceptance of biofuels and other energy alternatives, helping end our gluttonous addiction to foreign petroleum.

(Issue #3, January 15, 2007)
 
Please make a donation to American Free Press
 
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
 

[The Rabbi]

You're effing kidding me, right?

[Art Eatman]

Some ten or fifteen years back it had become obvious that our west coast ports were getting more business than they could handle.  Expansion was limited due to physical constraints.  So, they're developing more ports in Mexico.  At present, freighters circle for days to even a week or more, offshore from our west coast ports, waiting to dock and offload.  As trade increases, so will the problems.

What's the alternative?  The only one I can think of is for us as a society to buy less.  Not less imports, just "less".  But tell that to yourself, yo momma, your wife and girlfriend--and your buddies and neighbors...

Why would trucks from Mexico reduce the amount of work for US drivers?  This is not a reduction in the amount of goods shipped.  And if trade does reduce, transportation costs will reduce the routing of goods through Mexico.  In essence, "Last hired, first fired."  It costs less to get to El Paso via I-8 and I-10 than from Topolobampo through Ciudad Chihuahua and Juarez.  Look at a map.

Regardless, there will always be changes in any sort of work or workplace.  We're a little short on buggy-whip manufacturers, and there's not much demand for linotype operators.  Not much demand for slide rules, either, I've noticed.

Funny:  I always heard that it was us Old Farts that were supposed to be afraid of change.

Art

[HankB]

Funny:  I always heard that it was us Old Farts that were supposed to be afraid of change.

No, it just worries those of us who haven't been put out to pasture yet. 


(Uh oh . . . better dodge that incoming . . . )

[charby]

Rumor has it two, class I railroads (BNSF and Kansas City Southern) in the US are behind Mexican ports too. Too much of a bottleneck on the California ports for efficient rail traffic at the rate of the container ships coming to port. Plus no stops at customs that way.

-Charby

[Brad Johnson]

Same whine, different day.  Opposition to the TTC generates this kind of lame BS on a daily basis - some kind of doom-and-gloom laden pseudo-analysis that is long one whine and short on actual facts, realistic economic assessments, and practical alternatives.

Brad

[K Frame]

Well, goddamn it, those ships circling off the California coast should just be glad to be circling off the California coast and should be proud to WAIT for an American steveadore who's working 70 hours a week making more than the President to unload the cargo so it can be kissed by the sweet sun of freedom, not some filthy Mexican sun of oppression!

Doesn't anyone realize that if only ONE of those ships goes to Mexico to unload the American economy will collapse, letting those filthy Mexicans rush in to fill the economic gap with their filthy Pesos?

WHERE ARE THE TRUE PATRIOTS???!!!!?

[LAK]

And of course making much of the goods we import at home would just destroy us. The San Andreas fault would open up and swallow the entire southern west coast, mount St Helens would explode and cover the northern states with lava and ash, tornados would level our farms in the east central portion, storms would range over the midwest and destroy the beef and bread basket, and the terrible islamic psychos would gain secret technology with the help of some arab client state and send a tsunami that would wipe out the east coast. We would slide into a terminal depression and never recover.

Anything - eliminate our middle class, take huge risks on security, make us even more dependent on foreign countries - a north american union - anything - but actually make these goods here in the USA. Please anything - but that

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http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

[The Rabbi]

Yes, by all means erect massve trade barriers.  Increase the cost to consumers by 30% or more on all items.  Have the state subsidize the grossly inefficient bloated industries that result from such moves.  Go ahead, make my day.

[280plus]

I'd say survival of the fittest is what the world's economy has turned into, but it's always been that way. There has to be some adjustment, in order for the poorer countries to join the more affluent on a more even scale the addluent countries must be willing to take a step down to reach them or reach down to them. That's what's happening right now. This is your so called "global socialism". If you're in business to make money and you can make something cheaper overseas and ship it here for less, why wouldn't you? I the long run we will all benefit because yes China is opening up, that's a hell of a market right there. I'll tell you something else, I listened to Teddy Kennedy yesterday spouting his usual rhetoric while introducing his bill to take power away from the President and "give it back to the people". I wanted to puke, no lie.

Let me rephrase a bit, we are not "reaching down to them" and just handing them money like we used to, we are handing them work. Call it what you will, I like the idea.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

And of course making much of the goods we import at home would just destroy us. The San Andreas fault would open up and swallow the entire southern west coast, mount St Helens would explode and cover the northern states with lava and ash, tornados would level our farms in the east central portion, storms would range over the midwest and destroy the beef and bread basket, and the terrible islamic psychos would gain secret technology with the help of some arab client state and send a tsunami that would wipe out the east coast. We would slide into a terminal depression and never recover.

Anything - eliminate our middle class, take huge risks on security, make us even more dependent on foreign countries - a north american union - anything - but actually make these goods here in the USA. Please anything - but that

Feel free to manufacture whatever goods you like here in the US.  Or to invest in those who do.  Go ahead.  Nobody is stopping you.  If you think that it's such a good idea, put your money where your mouth is.  Save us, please!

But don't come whining back here when you lose your shirt and finally realize that domestic manufacturing isn't all that.

[LAK]

Yes, by all means erect massve trade barriers.  Increase the cost to consumers by 30% or more on all items.  Have the state subsidize the grossly inefficient bloated industries that result from such moves.  Go ahead, make my day.

Boutros Boutros by Golly; how on earth did this country survive in the 1950s

Headless,

Right; and name just one type of goods that can not be made for a fraction of the cost and imported.

Tell me, is there anything that we should should not import that can be made cheaper elsewhere? And why should we not import those goods?

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http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

[The Rabbi]

Um, we survived in the 1950s because WW2 destroyed the production facilities every place else in the world.  There was no competition.  Shipping was also a lot less sophisticated.
I'd suggest reviewing Thomas Sowell's Economics for the Citizen and his comments on trade before you post again.  He explains pretty cogently that no country is the most efficient at every product.