Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I am pleased that I was able to work with Secretary Rubin and Ambassador Barshefsky's staff on this amendment. I am…”

“I am pleased that I was able to work with Secretary Rubin and Ambassador Barshefsky's staff on this amendment. I am confident that they will use this directive from Congress to make progress--in the spirit of NAFTA--to correct the personal duty-free allowance inequity. I hope that it can be passed by unanimous consent when it is brought to the floor. My amendment addresses the disparities that exist in the personal duty-free exemption's of the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The United States provides each United States resident who is returning from Mexico and Canada with a personal exemption from duty on merchandise valued at up to $400 once every 30 days. This is the same duty exemption every U.S. citizen is afforded when they return to the United States from any country. Mexico, however, has a two-tiered duty-free allowance structure. If you are a Mexican resident and live within 25 kilometers of the border, when you return to Mexico at a land border crossing, you may only return with $50 in duty-free merchandise. This has become known as the $50 rule, and it is crippling businesses on the U.S. side of the border in Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona.”