Posted on 09/05/2006 1:19:23 PM PDT by Trupolitik
Panama is planning to build a deeper, wider Panama Canal to allow Communist Chinese super-containerships carrying cheap 21st century slave-labor under-market goods to have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico and key NAFTA/CAFTA ports such as Miami.
In the shipping industry, Panamex container ships are defined as those that are able to fit through the 1,000-foot long and 110-foot wide canal. Typically, Panamex containerships were designed to carry 4,500 TEU (“Twenty Foot Units,” the length measurement of the standard ocean steel container). The first generation of post-Panamex container ships was built to carry up to 9,800 TEU. Today, a new class of super-post-Panamex vessels is under construction, designed to carry up to 12,500 TEU.
Panama President Martin Torrijos has decided to put to referendum a $6 billion project to build new locks in the Panama Canal sufficiently deep and wide to accommodate post-Panamex ships. President Bush, when visiting Panama during November 2005, supported the plan to expand and modernize the Panama Canal, a plan now estimated to cost $10 billion. Critics such as the Council on Hemispheric Affairs have argued that the cost of expanding the Panama Canal could be as high as $25 billion. As we have noted previously, port operations at both ends of the Panama Canal are already being operated by the Communist Chinese company Hutchinson Ports.
In 2003, west coast ports handled approximately 80% of the more than $100 billion imported from China, with Atlantic ports accounting for about 19% and Gulf Coast ports picking up the extra 1%. As noted by Michael Bomba of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin, “the volume of Chinese import trade handled by East Coast ports has more than doubled between 2000 and 2003, with the largest jump occurring in 2002, when shippers began to search for alternative routes.” In the shipping industry, the Longshoreman Union’s west coast strike is widely quoted as a reason importers of goods from China have sought to open up Mexican ports and a variety of east coast ports (including New York, Newark, and the Port of Virginia centered on Norfolk) as an alternative ports of entry.
In 1998, the state of Florida created FTAA Florida Inc., a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation primarily to promote Miami’s bid to become the headquarters of a planned FTAA secretariat. Governor Jeb Bush sits on the FTAA Florida Inc. board and the Florida legislature funds half of the organization’s annual $1.3 million budget. As recently as the Fourth Summit of the Americas held at Mar de Plata in Argentina in November 2005, the Bush Administration has continued to push for reviving a Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative.
Describing CAFTA as a “stepping stone toward FTAA, the Port of Miami’s website describes the port as the “Cargo Gateway of the Americas.” Even though the website emphasizes that “the conventional wisdom is that the increased volume will mainly be U.S. exports,” the text acknowledges the importance to the Port of Miami of imports from Asia:
The shift in Asian trade to East Coast ports via all-water routes through the Suez and Panama canals, however, resulted in the Far East being the fastest-growing region for the port in 2005, reflecting an increase of 34.96% over fiscal 2004. Trade with Asian countries represented 22.71% of the total tonnage handled at the Port of Miami during 2005, second only to South America, which accounted for 23.42% of total trade.
Even as port improvements in Miami are being billed as preparing for NAFTA, CAFTA, and FTAA, the driving force is the steadily increasing flood of imports anticipated from China. The true winner of NAFTA, CAFTA, and FTAA (should it ever come to be) is China, not Mexico or Honduras, or any other NAFTA, CAFTA, or FTAA trade partner. The day under-market goods made by 21st century slave labor in China are restricted from entry into the U.S. market is the day the enthusiasm for super-post-Panamex containerships in Miami will collapse.
Let's me guess...hmmmmmm...oh, I know: all going to WallyWorld to run out mom and pop businesses
Funny, I always thought that canal was a bit over 50 MILES long...
Must be the oceans rise, due to gloobal warming, no doubt.
Get the popcorn. I wonder what the U.S. can do to keep Panama from expanding the Canal, short of the military option.
actually, its likely cars. they need some heavy ocean transport ability to bring cars and trucks back over, as the auto industry transitions there.
It will help American consumers, and Walmart.
"Let London manufacture those fine fabrics of hers to her heart's content; let Holland her chambrays; Florence her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuna; Milan her brocade, Italy and Flanders their linens...so long as our capital can enjoy them; the only thing it proves is that all nations train their journeymen for Madrid, and that Madrid is the queen of Parliaments, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody."
(Prominent Spanish official - Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675)
Under-market? Does Jerome mean cheap?
And this is a wild guess, they want us to pay for it...
Worst President ping
Maybe they're talking about the locks.
(Prominent Spanish official - Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675)
Everybody should make all their own stuff.
(A. Pole - Prominent Freeper doom and gloomer since May 10, 1999)
only because of import quotas dating back to the 80s, and the light truck tarriff. the japanese were confronted on this trade issue, and figured that if they wanted to profit in this market, they had to invest here for production. the same with some of the Germans.
will we do the same to chinese made cars?
We could nuke it, but then they wouldn't need a canal at all anymore............The isthmus would be a peninsula........
Why would we want to stop them? The last time I checked, China wasn't the only country that had large ships. Don't forget this is coming from Jerome Corsi. His flat out mistakes on NAFTA and the TTC make me suspicious of anything he writes.
actually the canal is a complicated combination of manmade lakes and locks, not one long lock...
They were undoubtedly referring not to the length of the canal in toto, but the length of the canal LOCKS.
will we do the same to chinese made cars?
PRECISELY.
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