Mexican new-car dealers association Amda has asked the government to reject proposals to legalise imports of US and Canadian used cars to Mexico before 2009, the deadline set under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) treaty.
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Some political parties (mostly centre-left) are pushing the government to legislate the imports immediately. They argue that Mexico already gets a huge inflow of used imported cars, so why not legalise them to boost the state’s tax coffers with about 5.6 billion Mexican pesos a year?
Congress hearings on the highly-controversial issue are scheduled for September.
But Amda argues that opening the border at a time when the country is struggling to stem a huge inflow and circulation of illegal cars, popularly referred to as “coches chocolate” [chocolate cars], would be ruinous for the industry.
“Opening the border right now would bring a generalised increase of vehicle garbage,” charged Amda general manager Alfredo Llorente, adding that nearly 500,000 ‘chocolate cars’ enter Mexico annually, prompting losses of 50 billion Mexican pesos for new vehicle suppliers.
The majority of Mexico’s 2.5 million ‘chocolate cars’ are used and in bad condition. Owners don’t pay taxes or registration fees “so many Mexican prefer to buy a chocolate car,” an Amda official told just-auto.
To prevent the import blitzkrieg, Amda wants the state to draft a plan to regularise the used-auto sector until the NAFTA date. The group is also urging the government to introduce measures to boost new car sales in the country.
Ivan Castano
