75 



not to what the agreement allows or calls for, but the question of 

 how the United States is going to enforce those agreements. 



I know in testimony we have had and discussions we have had 

 with the Customs we have found that they have had little or no 

 part in the design of these agreements in a way that gives them 

 any kind of opportunity for enforcement. So the question comes 

 down to the agreement. In reality, are we in fact opening the 

 doors — because they are unenforceable — agreements that will not 

 allow — as is allowed under the agreement itself — protection for 

 transshipment of various agricultural products? 



Has there been any kind of attention given to that area? What 

 kind of assurgince can we be given that there will be enforcement 

 with regard to our laws? Are we allowed into Mexico, for example, 

 to investigate transshipment questions? Will we be able to partici- 

 pate in that? Who will have the responsibility? Will there be addi- 

 tional personnel assigned to the Customs Service or other enforce- 

 ment agencies to make sure that this is carried out? 



Certainly, when we look at the difficulties that we have faced 

 just in preventing all of the illegal drugs coming into this country, 

 and we know, for instance, any cocaine crossing our borders is ille- 

 gal, how are we going to be able to differentiate between a side of 

 beef or processed meat as to whether it came from Mexico as op- 

 posed to Argentina, Australia, or some other country in trans- 

 shipment? 



Ambassador EIantor. Let me start from your very precise ques- 

 tion and maybe make one broader comment. 



In article 505 records and article 506 origin verification we do 

 have the right to audit in Mexico and audit these procedures, 

 which should be fairly protective in terms of rules of origin. It is 

 very strong language. 



Mr. English. The problem that troubles me about this is that, 

 sure we can audit books. There is no problem with doing that sort 

 of thing. But do we have the right under this agreement to send 

 investigators in to determine whether or not those books are being 

 created or whether they accurately reflect what has happened? 



Let me tell the response when I asked this question earlier. The 

 response I got as to how we were going to determine whether or 

 not our meat import quotas are being violated — meat being shipped 

 into this country — was that we have a rough idea of how much 

 meat is produced in Mexico. Therefore, whenever the amount that 

 is crossing our borders exceeds that particular level, then we know 

 they are in violation. 



If in fact what we are doing is saying that we will open up our 

 borders for any of our agricultural products from which we have 

 any kind of import quotas and simply say that they can ship in the 

 total amount that is produced in Mexico, then I think we have a 

 very serious problem indeed and one that will be very destructive 

 to American agriculture. I don't think there is any way in the 

 world you can say that that is going to be a positive influence for 

 American agriculture. 



Ambassador Kantor. Let me just read in article 506 origin ver- 

 ification 1(b), which I think is very interesting. 



"Verification can be done by means of visits to the premises of 

 an exporter or producer in the territory of another party" — in this 



