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| More Cement on its way, says Wilson |
March 03, 2006 |
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Cement is “Building Block” of Jobs and Economic Development
Albuquerque, NM – Congresswoman Heather Wilson joined with representatives of New Mexico’s construction industry today to celebrate a pending tariff agreement with Mexico that will make cement more readily available in New Mexico. Last August, builders in New Mexico expressed concern that a looming cement shortage could slow down our state’s economic boom. Wilson wrote to U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and to President Bush, asking the Administration to lower or eliminate a costly tariff on cement imported from Mexico.
Wilson claimed victory today, announcing that Secretary Gutierrez and Mexican trade officials will sign a new agreement on Monday to lower and possibly eliminate tariffs on Mexican cement.
“Jobs and economic development in New Mexico depend on a reliable supply of cement,” says Wilson. “Cement is the building block of our economy, and I look forward to Monday’s signing of an agreement that will allow our construction industry to keep building.”
Wilson says the agreement — which is scheduled to be signed next Monday and will take effect in April — will reduce the tariff from $26 per ton to about $3 per ton. In August when Wilson first got involved in the issue, the tariff was $57 per ton.
According to Commerce Department officials, the tariff is completely eliminated after 3 years if all parties abide by the Agreement. Quotas on Mexican cement shipments will be limited to 3 million metric tons in the first year of the agreement, and may be increased over the next two years. Shipments may increase further if there were another natural disaster that warrants an increase in imports of Mexican cement. Most of this cement will go to the "Southern Tier" states, including New Mexico.
“I write to request that you suspend the $57-per-ton tariff on imported Mexican cement,” said Wilson in separate letters to Gutierrez and President Bush last August. “Cement is an important building block of economic growth. I have become increasingly concerned that the nationwide cement shortage could undermine the health of New Mexico’s construction and housing sectors and the nation’s economy as a whole. Removing the cement tariffs on Mexican imports could be part of the solution.”
In August, GCC Rio Grande, the operator of New Mexico’s only cement plant, told its customers that it was going to begin rationing the supply of cement. The company serves the construction industries through two distribution channels in Albuquerque, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. On August 3, 2005, GCC Rio Grande Vice President William Webb told the Albuquerque Journal that “It’s like having a gallon jug and 100 people that need a drink” and that the company had to ration its supplies of cement just to maintain some flow of product to its customers.
The U.S. Department of Commerce enacted the tariffs 15 years ago to slow down the so-called “dumping” of cheap cement supplies into the U.S.
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