EFE.- The controversy of “chocolate” cars, as irregular vehicles entering the United States are called in Mexico, has been rekindled with the announcement of the Government to regularize them. in a possible attempt to collect more taxes in the face of industry opposition.
The controversy has raged since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced this week that next month the regularization of these vehicles will begin in Baja California to later extend it to the rest of the northern states.
“Making a regularization has been a politically profitable issue, there are many organizations that revolve around that and it is supposedly an action that benefits people with fewer resources,” economist Eliseo Díaz, from the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, told Efe this Saturday ( Colef).
THE ENGINE OF THE PROBLEM
Prior to the pandemic, the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) asked Congress to regulate these cars to raise 50,000 million pesos additional for the 18 million irregular vehicles that he estimated then that there are in Mexico.
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Mexican migrants in the United States and residents of the border tend to introduce these vehicles because they are cheaper, but there are also groups that are dedicated to it and criminals who take advantage of their irregularity to commit crimes, explained Professor Díaz.
“There is the problem that the import of these cars became a business, which cannot circulate in Mexico, so there is a parallel, illegal market, where they are sold with organizations that place (place license plates) in an irregular way,” he warned.
In this context, López Obrador justified the need to regulate them to “have control” for reasons of “security“.
“There are many people who do not have, they are not enough to have a new car, agency, and because with these cars they move in the city, take their children to school and it is a necessary means,” he argued in the border city. Juárez.
SHOCK OF POSTURES
The Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) has questioned the measure while the country’s automotive industry, which contributes more than 20.5% of manufacturing GDP, is about 20% below its pre-pandemic levels.
Its regulation would imply a fall of up to 39% in sales in the national market, according to the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA).
“(There is) concern that the announcement made by the president has limits regarding the regularization decree, that it is not a lax process,” said Guillermo Rosales, deputy director general of the AMDA, at a press conference this week.
The Secretary of Economy, Tatiana Clouthier, promised to “take note”, but clarified that there are already rules.
“I believe that the institutions have every right to raise their voices and express their point of view, we are taking note of this, and we also remember that there is a decree,” he said.
Also read: Coparmex rejects the regularization of chocolate cars
AN OLD PROBLEM
The regularization of the so-called “chocolate cars” is an “old problem”Dating from the six-year term of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), Díaz explained.
But now that this government “revives” the issue Incentives could be created to import more of these vehicles, although the border remains closed to non-essential crossings due to covid-19.
“Usually they are vehicles that no longer have the possibility of circulating in the United States and car smugglers introduce them and sell them in Mexico, and they do so in violation of environmental regulations,” observed the economist.
Automotive industry leaders have also criticized the measure for its ecological impact.
From the United States enter “heavy junk vehicles,” said Miguel Elizalde, president of the National Association of Producers of Buses, Trucks and Tractors (ANPACT).
“If right now in our figures we say that we are placing 100 new vehicles, 35 additional vehicles are still being imported, imported used, that nothing contributes to the environment or security, “he said at a conference.
In the Ministry of Economy they have defended that there is a decree that allows the definitive importation of used vehicles and that it is part of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).
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“Today the conditions and commitments exist to establish the possibility of having trade in this type of vehicle, now, this decree very clearly establishes certain criteria and certain requirements,” said Luz María de la Mora, undersecretary of Foreign Trade.