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Renegotiating NAFTA - Will railroads be hurt or helped?


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 24 November 2016 - 03:26 PM

MarketPlace.org, 11/22:
 

Railroads worry trade policy could reduce freight traffic

 

Railroads are among the many industries wondering what they stand to gain or lose under a Trump administration. President-elect Trump says he wants a major infrastructure initiative. A trade group representing major freight railroads sent a letter to him yesterday with its wish list for such a plan. But the rail industry is also concerned about another issue: how trade policy could affect freight.

 

Click  to hear the full story.

 

 



#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 26 November 2016 - 08:54 PM

Logistics Management, 11/22:
 

Railroad leaders stress importance of trade deals

 

While Trump’s election win has been viewed as a boon for big business, it was clear at last week’s RailTrends conference that tinkering with NAFTA could actually be bad for business.

 

 

One thing President-elect Donald Trump made very clear on the campaign trail is that he is not, by any stretch, a fan of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

 

At times he said that if elected NAFTA could go away entirely, but based on a report in the Wall Street Journal, it looks like he may be willing to “settle” for some changes to and not scrapping it altogether. The WSJ report noted that comments from Trump and his inner circle indicate they want “big changes” made to NAFTA, including special tariffs or other barriers to reduce the nation’s trade deficit with Mexico and new taxes hitting for U.S. companies that have moved production to Mexico, and the removal of a NAFTA provision that enables Canadian and Mexican companies to challenge U.S. regulations outside of the court system.  

 

While Trump’s election win has been viewed as a boon for big business, it was clear at last week’s RailTrends conference in New York, which was hosted by Progressive Railroading magazine and independent railroad analyst Tony Hatch, that tinkering with NAFTA could actually be bad for business.

 

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#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 08 December 2016 - 07:56 AM

AB via The San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune, 11/30:
 

Freight railroads don't expect big trade changes under Trump

 

Major U.S. freight railroads expect their business to fare well as long as the economy continues growing despite President-elect Donald Trump's promises to overhaul U.S. trade policy and renegotiate bad deals.

 

Railroad executives didn't seem worried about major trade changes Wednesday when they spoke at a Credit Suisse investor conference in Palm Beach, Florida. And railroads would benefit if major infrastructure projects are approved or the Trump administration relaxes environmental restrictions on coal.

 

"At this point, we think logic will prevail," Union Pacific's Chief Financial Officer Rob Knight said. "If we want to grow our economy, it's going to require healthy trade."

 

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#4 CNJRoss

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Posted 03 February 2017 - 06:39 PM

KCUR-FM (NPR - University of Missouri-Kansas City), 2/1:
 

Trump’s Trade Tweets Hurt Kansas City Southern Railroad

 

 

President Donald Trump’s threats to disrupt trade with Mexico aren’t just concerning people south of the border. Each time Trump attacks the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the executives at a 130-year-old railroad with headquarters in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, hold their breath. Like a lot of U.S. companies Kansas City Southern depends on cross-border trade.   

 

Kansas City Southern takes Midwestern corn and auto parts to Mexico, and hauls finished cars, car parts and household appliances like washing machines and refrigerators back.

 

"They are the NAFTA railroad," explains Jason Seidl, the managing director for Cowen and Company and a Wall Street analyst for Railway Age.

 

Continue here w/audio report.

 

2/6:  "Picked up" by NPR Morning Edition


Edited by CNJRoss, 08 February 2017 - 08:11 AM.
Added link to NPR


#5 CNJRoss

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Posted 04 February 2017 - 08:05 AM

Omaha (NE) World-Herald, 2/3:
 

Union Pacific, BNSF, Werner have benefited big from NAFTA. What happens if Trump scraps it?

 

 

The North American Free Trade Agreement has meant about five times more business with Mexico over the past 20 years for the trucks and trains crucial to Nebraska’s economy.

 

While it is hard to separate normal economic growth from trade attributable to the treaty, any prosperity related to it might be in peril. President Donald Trump has said the treaty is unfair to U.S. manufacturers and should be scrapped — a power play well within his authority.

 

A lot might be at stake for some big Nebraska corporations.

 

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#6 CNJRoss

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Posted 06 April 2017 - 02:38 PM

UPRR Inside Track, 4/4/17:
 

Business Over the Border: NAFTA's Role in Balancing Economies


 
As a new administration ponders changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), one important fact cannot be overlooked: millions of American jobs depend on trade occurring along the U.S./Mexican border – the fourth largest economy in the world.
 

Each year, NAFTA-related trade generates about 200,000 export-related jobs – jobs that pay about 15 to 20 percent better than the manufacturing jobs lost due to rising imports from Mexico, according to the International Trade Commission. In the agriculture sector alone, Mexico is America's third-largest agricultural market, importing $18 billion of U.S. agricultural products – trade that pumps income into farming communities across the U.S.

 

These facts aren't lost on Mexican economist Luis De la Calle, one of the original architects of NAFTA.

De la Calle left a job coordinating Eastern European issues at the Washington, D.C., World Bank in 1991 to represent Mexico as part of the original NAFTA negotiating team.

 

It was President Ronald Reagan who proposed the agreement during his 1980 primary campaign as a way to leverage an already robust trade relationship between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. "Most people thought Reagan was crazy," De la Calle said. "But 10 years later we were negotiating NAFTA."

 

The final agreement, which went into effect in January 1994, is considered one of the most ambitious, important trade treaties in history.

 

But some disagree. Opponents blame NAFTA for the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs in the rust belt.

 

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#7 CNJRoss

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Posted 30 June 2017 - 02:24 PM

Bloomberg 6/26/17:
 

Union Pacific CEO Sees Growth With Mexico, Trump Rhetoric Aside

 

  • U.S. officials are ‘pragmatic and reasonable,’ Fritz says
  • Railroad capitalizes on chemical-production boom on Gulf Coast

 

Union Pacific Corp. sees Mexico trade as a bright spot for its rail freight growth despite tough trade talk from President Donald Trump, said Chief Executive Officer Lance Fritz.

 

Shipments between Mexico and the U.S. have been expanding as much as 6 percent annually over the last six years and now make up about 12 percent of the railroad’s revenue, Fritz said Wednesday in an interview. Union Pacific, the largest publicly traded railroad in North America, has captured 70 percent of the U.S.-Mexico train traffic through its six border crossings, he said. 

 

“Even while we struggled in volume in ’15 and ’16, we were growing with Mexico,” Fritz, 54, said at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “I think there’s great opportunity there still.”

 

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#8 CNJRoss

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Posted 30 June 2017 - 02:29 PM

Reuters 6/28/17:
 

Confident Trump will do 'right thing' on NAFTA: Union Pacific CEO

 

 

The head of the largest U.S. railroad said on Wednesday that based on conversations with officials from President Donald Trump's administration including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, he is confident upcoming talks will result in a "more effective" North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

 

"I've grown more convinced that they're reasonable on trade, I probably had more concerns about that three months ago," Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N) Chief Executive Lance Fritz told Reuters in an interview. "We've had good conversations with the administration and I'm confident they're going to do the right thing when it comes to NAFTA."

 

Renegotiation of NAFTA was a key campaign promise of Trump, who frequently called the 23-year-old trade pact a "disaster" that has drained U.S. factories and sent well-paid manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

 

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#9 CNJRoss

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Posted 28 August 2017 - 07:22 AM

Progressive Railroading, August 2017:

 

With NAFTA renegotiations looming, railroads hope more freight crisscrosses the southern U.S. border

 

a52339-Rerromex.jpg

In May, Ferromex was named a Socially Responsible Enterprise by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy.
Photo – Ferromex

 

 

Shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January, he warned that the United States would exit the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if the pact wasn’t renegotiated in the nation’s favor.

 

The leaders of hundreds of U.S. companies that generate business in Canada and Mexico — including the Class Is — grew anxious that a renegotiated pact with high tariffs and other unfavorable demands might greatly disrupt rather than expand trade flows.

 

They were concerned that millions of jobs and billions of dollars worth of U.S. investments associated with NAFTA would be in jeopardy. They also fretted if there would be trilateral uniformity to border-crossing procedures to improve freight fluidity and security, and if potential political reactions in Canada and Mexico would undermine U.S. exporters.

 

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#10 CNJRoss

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Posted 07 September 2017 - 10:15 PM

Teamsters news release 9/6/17:
 

Teamsters: New NAFTA Should Follow Lead of Canadian Labor Proposal

Hoffa, Laporte Say New Language Needed to Protect Workers

 

 

(WASHINGTON) – The following is a joint statement from Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and Teamsters Canada President François Laporte in response to the end of round two of NAFTA renegotiations in Mexico City earlier this week.
 
“We applaud the Canadian delegation for insisting on truly high-standard text – especially as to labor issues, which were relegated to unenforceable side agreements 25 years ago. Despite a lack of transparency from the U.S. government, we know that the Canadian proposals could do more to protect workers’ rights in North America than any previous trade agreement.

 

“We agree with our governments that a modernized NAFTA will be a model for future trade deals. That’s why crafting a chapter that protects workers’ rights is central to the success to the renegotiation and a precondition for Teamsters’ support.

 

“On labor, we agree that the substantive protections should be grounded in the ILO conventions, and that violations should be enforceable by trade sanctions. We also agree that U.S. state ‘right to work’ laws depress wages and thereby arguably constitute an export subsidy to U.S. exporters who move production to those jurisdictions.  

 

“We commend Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and her team for their ambition.  We are hopeful that the U.S. and Mexican negotiators will give the Canadian proposal the consideration it deserves. It should be the starting point for continuing a conversation that is premised on the observation that, in the integrated supply chains of North America, the wages and working conditions of all workers always affect trade.”

 






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