President Felipe Calderón Tuesday announced a dozen measures to allegedly deregulate the federal government, enabling the private sector to save up to 35 billion pesos (US$2.6 billion) in simplified procedures including paying taxes. The president did not say how government experts came up with the nice, round figure.

He said many procedures will be eliminated in the foreign trade sector of imports and exports, electrical service, foreign investments, work risk insurance, trading in medical equipment, health services and others.

Mexican exports to Europe and the rest of Latin America will be simplified by reducing by 70% the data required, and that registered exporter records have been standardized. Foreign investments will be greatly simplified through an Internet registration system that will eliminate some 70,000 norms.

U.S., Canada Norms Adopted

Mexico will unilaterally adopt U.S. and Canadian quality norms for the sale of electronic products in the Mexican market, a measure that will streamline imports of a wide variety of goods including computers, telephones and medical equipment, the Economy Secretariat said Tuesday.

In practice, the change implies that if a product has been certified in the United States or Canada, it can be imported without further consideration for Mexican norms, thus speeding up import procedures. This will not only benefit the nation technologically, but will greatly reduce equipment costs for such sectors as small and medium-sized companies.

Private organizations, including those devoted to making electronic equipment, said the change is positive, although it would have been better if Mexico had asked for reciprocity, namely the possibility that Mexican certifications be adopted in those two countries for Mexican products.

Banks’ Capital Strong

During the first half of the year, the Mexican banking system reached an average capitalization index of 13%, well above the 10% required by local regulators and the 8% demanded at the international level by the Basel Banking Committee, announced Tuesday the National Banking and Securities Commission.

The relevance of the capitalization index is that it reflects each bank’s financial position to guard against unexpected losses, depending on its risk profile and its credit portfolio, according to the central bank.

Among the local banks, the highest level of capitalization was reached by Banamex, a unit of Citigroup, which edged down to 20.13% of paid-in capital in June against 20.14% in May, while the best performer was Santander, a unit of the Spanish giant, which boasted 17.71% in June against 16.62% in May. The largest bank, BBVA Bancomer, dropped to 15.60% in June from 16.75% in May.

Import Tariffs Stiffened

In the wake of the U.S. failure to comply with surface transport commitments contained in the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico has decided to increase import duties on a number of U.S. goods, Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari announced Monday.

In monetary terms, the measure will impact a bilateral trade volume of between US$2.5 billion and US$2.6 billion, said Ferrari. In this new round of tariff increases are included 99 industrial and farming products, 10 more than in the previous round, from 43 U.S. states. Sixteen items were eliminated, and 26 new ones were added.

The secretary said he hopes the measures will persuade Washington to allow Mexican trucks to enter U.S. territory, something that should have happened since 1995. In the previous round of import duty hikes nothing happened, but Ferrari claims they resulted in the loss of 25,000 U.S. jobs.

Mexicana Stays Afloat

Struggling to stay afloat in its receivership process, the besieged airline Mexicana said Tuesday the rescue fund Advent Capital has preliminarily agreed to inject US$50 million in fresh capital to keep it alive, while the pilots union agreed to cut pay and benefits to the bare bones. At this juncture, there is no way to separate the mainline carrier from its two low-cost subsidiaries, Click and Link.

All through Tuesday, in a last-ditch effort to salvage Mexicana, the carrier’s unions and authorities and legislators held emergency meetings while some domestic flights were kept on schedule since there were thousands of tickets outstanding remaining to be honored. What emerged from the meetings was that downsizing by 50% seems inevitable, and so is the departure of the current management team.

But despite a flurry of statements and accusations against the management team and the shareholders, and their efforts to have the federal government step in and rescue the airline, the fact remains that Mexicana’s fate rests in the hands of bankruptcy court.

Junk Food Stays

Intense lobbying by junk food makers ultimately prevailed, and authorities were too weak to impose real restrictions on selling junk food in schools, a practice that has placed Mexican children at the top of the world0s obesity rankings.

In a joint press conference this week, Education Secretary Alfonso Lujambio; Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova; and Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari announced that some junk foods will be eliminated beginning next year at elementary schools only, but not during the current school year that begins next week.

The justification for the bland decision on junk foods is the claim that the makers of junk foods and beverages employ 695,000 persons, generate about 4% of the Gross Domestic Product and are planning to invest US$10 billion in the next several years in new plants and equipment.

Also, check out the following opinion columns:

“The Great Depression”, by Enrique Campos

Finance Undersecretary Alejandro Werner is jumping ship, and he will be sorely missed. It was a personal decision to leave at this juncture. The problem is that he’s going just when a major showdown with Congress looms on next year’s budget and taxes. Those who remain have enough expertise to see the budget through, but Werner was just the type of expert to clearly explain to legislators the finer points of the budget plan.

rmena@eleconomista.com.mx