U.S., Mexico resolve 16-year-old cement dispute

WASHINGTON — Officials signed an agreement Monday that will boost shipments of Mexican cement into the United States, resolving a 16-year trade fight.

The agreement, which will take effect on April 3, will allow imports of Mexican cement to rise to 3 million tons annually, up from what U.S. contractors estimate was 2.2 million tons of cement imported from Mexico last year.

In addition, penalty tariffs on the cement will drop from $26 per ton to $3 per ton and are scheduled to end completely in April 2009, the date that the 3 million-ton annual quota will disappear and Mexico will be allowed unlimited shipments of cement into the United States.

The U.S. trade barriers are designed to be eliminated as part of a deal in which Mexico will open up its market to U.S. and other foreign cement manufacturers. The United States began imposing penalty tariffs in 1990 after a finding that Mexican cement was being sold in the United States at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who participating in the signing ceremony for the United States, said the agreement was coming at a critical time when demand for cement in Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina will be rising.

The deal will allocate most of the 3 million tons of Mexican cement to a band of states stretching from California and Arizona to Mississippi and Alabama. The area around New Orleans is scheduled to get 280,000 metric tons of the 3 million metric tons of cement.

The deal also provides for an additional 200,000 metric tons of cement from Mexico in any year in which the president determines that a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, requires more cement.