Destination unknown

As Mexico City residents slowly returned to work and normal life after the holidays, we discovered we had a garbage problem.  Not just the bags of empty liquor bottles by the door; a real problem for the whole city and surrounding State of Mexico.  The largest solid waste disposal facility used for city garbage was shut down in December, and suddenly the city’s sanitation department wasn’t sure what to do with the garbage.

The dump in question, called Bordo Poniente, was closed with great fanfare on December 19, 2011 after over 25 years of service.  In line with Mayor Marcelo Ebrard’s ongoing effort to implement ecologically friendly public policies, city agencies developed a plan to recycle the site’s estimated 70 million tons of garbage in a number of ways.  According to the plan, the city will issue a tender for private companies to compete for a contract under which the winner will partner with government agencies to build a plant to harvest biogas from the decomposing organic waste.  The gas will be used to generate electricity to help run city services, and/or be converted into fuels for other applications.  In addition to the large scale biogas project, plans also anticipate other uses for the various types of waste once separated, such as compressed blocks to be sold as industrial fuel, recycling of metals and plastics, production of compost from organic residuals and shredding of construction waste to create sand.  The objective is that between the composting of organic waste and recycling of reusable materials, the reduced volume of remaining garbage will be distributed among various smaller waste disposal sites around the greater metropolitan area.  After some 20 years of composting and recycling, the Bordo Poniente site is intended to be converted to green space.  Just the type of ambitious, long-term sustainability planning the city needs to develop and carry through to fruition.

So the future looks promising, but alas, the present is rocky.  Following closure of the Bordo dump, immediate plans to redistribute the city’s daily garbage hit a snag when some local communities organized to block the additional waste from entering their disposal facilities.  As garbage piled up, trucks began dumping the increasing backlog outside the separation centers, in underutilized areas of the Bordo Poniente area itself, and reportedly in irregular dumps elsewhere around the Federal District.  At this writing, the city’s Department of Public Works has admitted it has a thorny problem on its hands but insists a solution is in the works.  We’re hoping they find a way to fast-track that biogas plant.

Read about our participation in the Mexico Today program here.

From what we can determine by our stats tracker and email, most of the people who visit Mexico Business Blog do so because they are looking for information on industrial or economic topics that are relevant to their business.  Generally, anyone who somehow ends up here because they love mole or pyramids will be disappointed.  But if you’re one of those people, now we have something for you!

We’ve mentioned before how we are serving as a Community Manager for the Mexico Today public relations program.  This on-line media campaign includes a Facebook “Social Magazine” where people like us who are keen on Mexico can post stories about this zany but economically significant country.  The site is in English, but it doesn’t matter what country you are from, as long as you have something positive you’d like to contribute on the topic.  Here’s the official description:

The newly launched Mexico Today Social Magazine on Facebook profiles stories and submissions from leading Mexico bloggers and influencers, including the 24 Mexico Today Ambassadors.

Help shape the conversation about today’s Mexico. The Magazine accepts not only short links, but also longer blog posts. Submit your content today to enter a chance to win a $500 gift card.

Did you notice the part about the US$500 gift card?  So if by chance you are a Mexico enthusiast and would like to write something positive about Mexico on line, here is a very attractive opportunity to do so.  If you were looking for the stuff about regulations for the plastics industry, then I guess we’re talking to ourselves about now, aren’t we?

Go here for details on how to participate in the Mexico Today Social Magazine.

A gezunt ahf dein kop

During the past month, we have had a close-up look at one of Mexico’s public hospitals, from the point of view of the end-user.  This was not a research project: A close family member suffered a sudden critical health crisis and was rushed to the nearest regional medical center, where he remains in a delicate state.  In the process, other family members have spent many hours at the hospital to assist in the patient’s care, discuss his condition with doctors and nurses, provide medical records and file documents, and ask questions through little circular holes in glass windows.  Although the experience has been stressful, we feel compelled to report that we have been favorably impressed with the quality of infrastructure and care at the public hospital.

Mexico is served by a mixed health care system, with private hospitals and specialized service providers available to those who can afford it, and a nationwide network of public hospitals and clinics for everyone else.  The largest piece of this network is the Mexican Social Security Institute, known as the IMSS.  Founded in 1943, the IMSS has grown into a colossal operation, operating some 1,500 clinics, 230 hospitals and 25 medical specialty centers.  The agency employs over 370,000 and provides health coverage for over 52 million beneficiaries, according to the National Statistics Institute (INEGI).  The IMSS is consistently the target of criticism for a range of deficiencies and in recent years has struggled with rapidly encroaching insolvency.  Nonetheless, for millions of Mexicans, and particularly the poor, it remains a lifeline for health care.

We had not taken a family member to a public hospital for treatment before.  But we regularly hear reports from others who presumably have, and mostly, their comments are withering.  Perhaps this is why we were so positively impressed with the overall experience at the IMSS hospital.  The particular facility in question is a regional center in a medium sized city in central Mexico.  It is very large, decidedly unglamorous and could use a coat of paint and some general maintenance here and there.  However, to our untrained eye it appeared to be well outfitted, with the equipment such as beds, electronic monitors and specialized medical devices of recent fabrication and readily available.  Despite handling a massive volume of patients and their fretful families, the medical staff by and large gave the impression of being knowledgeable, dedicated and professional.  The patient received at least six CAT scans, as well as various x-rays, laboratory analyses, medications and other forms of treatment during his three week stay in the hospital, the cost of all of which was – to our grateful astonishment – covered by the family’s IMSS public health insurance.  We nearly required hospitalization ourselves after trying to imagine what that would have cost in New York.

Our comments here are not intended to represent a comprehensive evaluation of public health services in Mexico, nor to compare these services with those of other countries.  They merely describe the recent experience of one Mexican family that frankly had expected worse based on the comments of others.

One final note: Although we observed hospital staff entering data into computers, we did notice that in the emergency room, reports were being typed up on old fashioned manual typewriters – and not of late vintage either.  Hadn’t seen one of those bad boys in a dog’s age.

Read about our participation in the Mexico Today program here.

Essential discada equipment

We confess we’re feeling rather sheepish writing a blog post about food, since Mexico Business Blog is supposed to focus on business and trade.  But we’ve read so many wonderful posts on Mexican food this past month, what with the fiestas patrias and all, from noted food bloggers like Cristina Potters, Nicholas Gilman, Maura Hernandez, Brad A. Johnson and others, that it reminded us of a long-held source of puzzlement: Why are some of our most bestest favoritest Mexican dishes so rarely – or never – seen or heard about in wider discussions of Mexican cuisine?

It may be that we hold these dishes so dear for the memories associated with them. Perhaps if you fell in love while on Spring Break in Cancun, you think Corona is the world’s greatest beer.  OK, bad example.  But we insist – these Mexican delicacies are fabulous, they are deeply ingrained in our fondest memories of Mexico, and why the heck do we never hear about them?

1)     Espinazo en salsa verde.  Back when we were penurious youths (before becoming adults of the same description), shuffling around the streets of La Roma, La Juárez and La Doctores here in Mexico City, espinazo en salsa verde was an absolute staple at the greasy spoons and markets that were the closest thing to a restaurant we could afford.  We recall it as a sort of spicy green broth chock-a-block with chunks of stewed pork spine and weedy leaves called verdolagas.  OK, it’s way better than it sounds, and I’m heading over to El 96 on the corner of Valladolid and Colima right now to order some.

2)     Pambazos. The pambazo is the Rodney Dangerfield of tortas, a sort of country cousin to the better known torta ahogada of Jalisco.

Pambazos

We recall them as something like a tough hamburger bun dipped in red chile sauce and stuffed with greasy fried chorizo, potatoes and maybe refried beans and garnished with shredded lettuce, crumbly cheese and fresh cream.  In our mind’s eye they are stacked high on plastic-covered tables at local fairs, markets and the occasional kermés in towns around the State of Mexico.  We also seem to remember them in a miniature version, almost bite-sized depending on how wide you can open your mouth.  OMG I want one now.

3)     Papadzules.  A specialty of Yucatecan cuisine, papadzules are probably the best known item on our list, but still may be untried by many who are already Mexican food lovers.

Papadzules

The quintessential papadzul is like  an enchilada except the tortilla is dipped in greenish pumpkin-seed sauce resembling an industrial coating, stuffed with hard cooked egg and topped off with tomato sauce.  We recently were invited to appear on a local television morning show in Mérida, Yucatán, and when asked by the host what we liked about Yucatán, we answered “papadzules.”  The program hosts and studio audience went absolutely bananas.  Say no more.

4)     Discada.  In our memories discada is something like the Mexican equivalent of Appalachian fried baloney, and belongs to the northern region known as “La comarca lagunera.”  It consists of any mix of leftover cold cuts chopped up with onions and peppers and fried on a plow disc, hence the name.  Years ago we spent a summer working out of Torreón, Coahuila, on a project that involved a lot of leaving before dawn to drive out to the ejido lands in the surrounding desert.  We were so impressed that these lonely roadside discada stands in the middle of nowhere were packing in the customers, we had to try for ourselves, and of course we were hooked.  Recommendation: For optimal enjoyment, stay out drinking until 4:00 a.m. before driving out to the desert to have your discada on the side of the highway.

5)     Torta de pulpo. This is sort of a bonus item as we admit that torta de pulpo, or in English the eyebrow-arching “octopus sandwich,” is as far as we know not a traditional Mexican dish.  But it is one of our strong favorites from another branch of our youthful memory lane.  Nothing up our sleeve here: Big chunks of fried octopus in spicy red sauce served on a telera hoagie roll.  Years ago, torta de pulpo was our order of choice at the once-legendary Mexico City sandwich purveyor El Hipocampo, housed in an imposing casona at the corner of Insurgentes and Vito Alessio Robles across from Plaza Inn.  El Hipocampo has since gone downhill through rampant franchising and the casona became a bookie joint above a 7-Eleven, but we’ll always have the memories of those chunky chunks of spicy deep-sea goodness, *sigh*.

Extra bonus item: Speaking of Yucatecan cuisine, are huevos motuleños the best or what?  Seriously, and this is not an apocryphal anecdote for the purposes of this post, we once rented a car and drove out to Motul on the Yucatan peninsula to find out if the huevos motuleños in Motul were better than in other places. The entire affair turned out to be an adventure, involving a sleeping municipal president, a cenote being converted into a discotheque and frankly unjustifiable quantities of liquor, but this is *cough cough* a business blog and we can skip the details.  The upshot is that it was true!  Huevos motuleños were better in Motul!  That’s how we remember it anyway, and really, a plate of huevos motuleños lasts only a couple of minutes, and the memories last forever, right?

But enough of our personal taco memories, we’re going back to writing about regulatory environments and import duties where we belong.  We promise we’ll leave Mexican food writing to the pros (see above) from now on.

To read about our participation in the Mexico Today program, please go here.

Está en chino

Mexico’s long-running effort to defend its domestic manufacturing industries against cheap Chinese imports is about to take another hit.  The struggle goes back to China’s admission into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, which Mexico was highly reluctant to accept.    In return for Mexico’s vote to admit China, the two countries agreed to extend an existing Mexican program of compensatory import duties on key-sector products from the Asian giant.  Focusing largely on textiles, apparel and footwear, the duties ranged from over 100% to over 1,000% depending on the product.  The high tariffs helped stave off the inevitable for a while, but the extension was originally agreed to last only six years.  As the expiration date neared in 2007, the Mexican government heeded the frantic entreaties of the affected sectors, particularly the Guanajuato footwear industry centered around the city of León, and dived back into negotiations with the Chinese.  The result was elimination of the compensatory duties on 749 Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) product classifications, but the extension of the duties on some 200 remaining classifications.  The tariff rates on the remaining products have been reduced annually since 2008, but are still substantial, ranging approximately from 65% to 130%.

The jig, however, may now finally be up: The compensatory duty scheme is scheduled to expire on December 11, 2011, and Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari has declared that the duties will be lifted.  Guanajuato shoemakers are absolutely plotzing, but it’s important to remember that the end of the compensatory duty scheme does not mean that Chinese products will begin to enter Mexico duty-free.  The two countries have no trade liberalization agreement in place, and as such, upon expiration of the compensatory scheme Chinese products will become subject to Mexico’s General Importation and Exportation Tax program (TIGIE), which establishes the tariffs on products from countries with which Mexico has no special trade agreement.  Here’s a sample of selected product classifications and the difference between the soon-to-expire compensatory duties on Chinese-origin goods and the base duty according to the TIGIE scheme:

Source: Diario Oficial de la Federación, Secretaría de Economía

While the new duty rates will still be somewhat steep for some products (30% for footwear, shorts and pants), in other areas the change could mean a real difference for North American and European consumer goods brands manufacturing in China.  If the difference is enough to make products that were previously priced out of the market due to tariff suddenly price-competitive, we could see a surge in Chinese housewares products, for example, in Mexican stores next year.  As it is, recent growth in imports of Chinese-origin products in Mexico has been dramatic, posting an increase of 158% between 2005 and 2010, according to Mexico’s Economy Ministry.  Mexico has expanded its exports to China by an even more impressive 270% over the same period, but the total value of Chinese exports to Mexico is over 10 times that of Mexico’s shipments to China.  That ratio could become even more extreme if the new duties turn out to make the difference for enough foreign brands of consumer goods currently manufactured in China.

Read about our participation in the Mexico Today program here.

Some developments meriting commentary took place last week in the preliminary campaigns for next year’s Mexican presidential election.  We laid out the general pre-candidacy landscape in this post, for anyone joining us mid-program.

First in the PAN: Since we last wrote on this topic two weeks ago, Josefina Vázquez Mota’s stock has clearly risen.  President Felipe Calderón spoke favorably of his former Education Secretary at an event following the official launch of her campaign for the nomination, prompting speculation that he was not averse to an eventual Vázquez Mota candidacy.  This was considered to be a signal of some significance, as Calderón’s personal preferred candidate is believed to be Ernesto Cordero.  For his part, Cordero wasted no time in grabbing back the spotlight by resigning as Finance Secretary on September 9 in order to formally launch his own drive for the PAN nomination.  The top three contenders Vázquez Mota, Cordero and Senator Santiago Creel have stepped up their campaigns in recent days and were further solidified as the front runners when Education Secretary Alonso Lujambio dropped out of the race on August 29.  While Jalisco Governor Emilio González Márquez is still talking up his campaign, the rumor mill has him tabbed as the next casualty, possibly following the Panamerican Games to be held in Guadalajara October 14 – 30 [UPDATE: González Márquez officially dropped out of the race on September 22].  The coming weeks should be interesting for PAN-watchers, as the top three pre-candidates make moves to try to build buzz and momentum. [Permalink inexplicably out of order, please go here for the rest of this post]

The PRD has been something like a spooky haunted mansion the past couple weeks – the unexpected noises coming out of it have us jumping for the chandelier.  Things got entertaining when Mexico City Social Development Secretary Martí Batres sonorously criticized his boss, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, for attending President Felipe Calderón’s annual address.  Batres maintains that Calderón stole the 2006 election from Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and as such is an “illegitimate” president.  Ebrard, enmeshed in a fierce battle with López Obrador for the PRD nomination, seized the opportunity to sack his irksome subordinate for questioning his authority to lead.  Unburdening himself of Batres was a strategic move for Ebrard, as the city’s Social Development Department oversees social programs and resources key to shoring up popular support for the party in power.  With the party and its allies split between AMLO and Ebrard for the nomination, leaving Social Development in the hands of staunch AMLO supporter Batres simply wouldn’t do.  But here’s the spooky part: AMLO himself, instead of leaping on the opportunity to rail against Ebrard as authoritarian and intolerant (as his supporters hastened to do), placidly declared that the Mayor was free to make administrative adjustments to his team as he deemed convenient.  This uncharacteristic indifference sent chills up our spine.  When López Obrador, who sees conspiracies fill the air like so many falling snowflakes, waxes harmonious when his rival sacks one of his closest allies, something fishy is cooking behind the scenes.  We’re still not sure what is happening back there, but cards will have to be played soon as the PRD has ostensibly agreed to conduct polls in October to gauge which of its two aspiring candidates has greater public support. [UPDATE: The polls are now being pushed back to November or later; formal dates have not been set]

For its part, the PRI announced it will define its presidential candidate on February 5, 2012.  The news was largely met with yawns as Enrique Peña Nieto continues on track for the nomination with no substantive rivals in sight.

Read about our participation in the Mexico Today program here.

With less than a year remaining before Mexico’s next presidential election, to be held July 1, 2012, not much is settled other than the front-runnership of the PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto.  But the political parties have not yet launched their official campaigns, and there is still plenty of time for the landscape to shift.  So from this vantage point, here is our view of the lay of the land.

The six year administration of President Felipe Calderón of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) has been one of the toughest in recent times for Mexico, beginning with a highly disputed election and beset by severe recession, the swine flu crisis, drought, flooding and a drastic increase in violence from warring drug traffickers.  With this backdrop, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), still stewing over loss of the presidency to the PAN in 2000 following 70+ years of uninterrupted rule, appears to view its return to power next year as a foregone conclusion.  The PRI has not yet formally selected its candidate, but Mr. Peña Nieto, currently Governor of the State of Mexico, is widely expected to be chosen. The only other visible candidate, playing Washington Generals to Peña Nieto’s Harlem Globetrotters, is Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who trails by a lengthy margin in early polling.  Peña Nieto is no maverick, but rather represents the customs and methods of the old PRI, and in fact he is related to various high profile PRI figures from the past.  In place of a clear public policy platform, Mr. Peña Nieto has a much more formidable and possibly invincible ally: The slobbering support of the country’s largest television network, Televisa.

While much of the media may be handing over the keys to the PRI already, the other two leading political parties are proceeding full bore in preparation for their respective campaigns.  Even as the PAN reels from the collective black eye it has received over the past five years, an abundance of candidates clambers to obtain the party’s candidacy.   First in line is Senator Santiago Creel, whose smug confidence was unexpectedly dashed to atoms by dark horse Felipe Calderón late in the race last time around.  President Calderón’s own apparent choice is Finance Secretary Ernesto Cordero, with Federal Deputy Josefina Vázquez Mota and potty-mouthed, rosary-brandishing Jalisco State Governor Emilio González Márquez also loudly campaigning for selection.    Dozens more aspirants are lined up behind the top five pre-candidates, but the outlook is bleak for the PAN.  While Creel, González Márquez and Vázquez Mota can each lay claim to a certain degree of personal charisma, it is difficult to imagine any of the three winning it all under current circumstances.  Creel’s aristocratic appearance and demeanor fail to connect with the hoi polloi; the appeal of González Márquez’ smirking swagger and promotion of the Catholic church is not broad based; and Vázquez Mota is fighting an uphill battle against the highly conservative PAN hierarchy.  Ultimately, Vázquez Mota’s condition as “something completely different” may well be the PAN’s best bet, but it’s still unlikely to put her over the top in the national race and may not even be enough to win the party’s nomination.

If the PAN is paddling upstream, the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) is snagged on a rock underneath the falls.  With two clear candidates vying to become the candidate of an alliance of left-wing currents and minor parties spearheaded by the PRD, the party is struggling to keep from splitting into smoldering shards and total collapse.  The two pre-candidates are former Tabasco State gubernatorial candidate and Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (commonly referred to as AMLO) and current Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.  López Obrador approximately tied Felipe Calderón in the last presidential election and proceeded to fight the decision for months after Calderón was declared the victor by a PAN-dominated electoral tribunal.  Ebrard, ever the wily crocodile, has long professed support for AMLO’s cause, all the while working feverishly behind the scenes to shore up his own support base within the party in detriment to his former mentor.  Internally, the PRD is severely split between two principal currents, one of which supports AMLO for the candidacy while the other supports Ebrard.  The party is further riven amongst numerous sub-factions weaving in the venomous political waters like so many ribbons of ideological seaweed.   Adding to the chorus of oaths are two small independent parties, the Partido del Trabajo (PT) and the Partido Movimiento Ciudadano (PMC, formerly Convergencia), who provide their support, such as it is, unconditionally for AMLO.

While both AMLO and Ebrard have labored to create a perception that they will each accept the results of a mutually agreed candidate selection mechanism, neither looks likely to turn his support over to the other for an ultimately unified candidacy of the left.  This past weekend’s PRD party congress appears to have agreed in principle to determine the candidate through a series of polls of public opinion in general, rather than consulting only party members.  This mechanism was promoted by Ebrard and its adoption appears on the surface to be a tactical victory by the capital’s mayor over his rival.  If AMLO somehow comes out ahead in the polls, however, Ebrard would theoretically be obliged to eat his hat.  In reality, of course, the chivalrous agreement to respect the poll results could easily go up in smoke once the results are announced in October.

One final note: the topic of whether or not to enter into electoral alliances with other parties (usually referring to the rightist PAN) for state level elections earlier this year has been highly divisive within the PRD.  Ebrard generally has supported the strategy, while López Obrador and his followers are staunchly against.  The possibility that Ebrard becomes the PRD’s presidential candidate has raised speculation that he might seek an unprecedented PRD-PAN alliance in a massive push to prevent the PRI from returning to power.  While such an exceedingly-strange-bedfellows alliance would make for delicious political entertainment, the stumbling blocks appear to be insurmountable in reality.  For our part, may truth turn out to be stranger than fiction.

NOTE: There is an update to this post here.

To find out about our participation in the Mexico Today program, go here.

Yuck

On July 26, 2011, Mexico City’s Department of the Environment (SMADF) published new guidelines for the production and consumption of plastic products in the city.  The guidelines are scheduled to enter into effect in July 2012 in order to provide affected parties time to prepare for compliance.  The legislation’s lengthy official title could probably be reduced to “the plastic bag law,” as it serves largely as the next step in the ongoing process of trying to figure out how to reduce the volume and degradation time of all the plastic bags discarded daily in the vast metropolis.  The new guidelines were eagerly awaited — so eagerly, in fact, that members of three opposition parties in the city’s legislative assembly (ALDF) called for Environment Secretary Martha Delgado’s removal over the delay.

Any Mexico City resident can tell you that local grocery store baggers are generous to a fault with the plastic bags.  Most of these grocery bags go right in the trash once the purchases are put away at home, contributing to the more than 1,000 tons of plastic garbage the city produces daily.  With the municipal dumps overflowing, in 2009 the city government formed a working group of plastics producers, retailers, academics and other specialists to develop policy recommendations for reducing the volume of plastic bags flowing into the landfills.  But for the city fathers, the plastic bag problem has turned out to be rather like Borges’ aleph: the closer they look at it, the larger and more complex it becomes.

The deliberations of the original working group produced mostly frustration and perplexity.  The ALDF took a stab at the problem in August 2010 by summarily prohibiting stores from providing non-biodegradable plastic bags to shoppers free of charge.  After about two days of absolutely nonpareil confusion at checkout counters across the metropolis — not to mention a hue and cry that would wake the dead — the city threw up its hands.  The measure was abandoned and the status quo was restored, but the problem, of course, remained.  One year later, the new guidelines appear to be more thoroughly pondered and represent progress, but still resemble a set of exhortations rather than specific regulations.  For example, the legislation calls upon plastic bag makers to:

• Orient their processes toward sustainable production that minimize environmental impact throughout the product’s life-cycle
• Give priority to the optimization of the use of renewable natural resources, minimization of emissions, avoidance of toxic components and use of efficient design

Retailers providing bags to customers are asked for slightly more concrete concessions:

• Define the type of bag that best promotes responsible and moderate use for their type of product
• Provide training for their baggers in the efficient distribution of bags
• Clearly label their bags with details on the material of which they are made
• Contribute to the dissemination of environmentally friendly practices in the consumption and use of plastic bags
• Plastic bags provided free of charge must be made of at least 10% recycled plastic
• Plastic bags made of materials that include ingredients to enhance biodegradation must be documented with the SMADF verifying that the material’s life-cycle is no greater than five years or that the bag material is suitable for recycling

(NOTE: English translation is for reference only, see original text of law for direct interpretation)

The complete text of the law is far more extensive and detailed than described above, but nonetheless the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) has already criticized the guidelines for lacking specific criteria to which producers and retailers may be held accountable.

Fair enough, but we’re still pleased that modest progress continues to be made in this regulatory environment.  We feel, however, that the most interesting and salient aspect of the law may be the subtle shift toward an emphasis on recycling rather than biodegradation.  If our interpretation is correct, this appears to be a win for the plastics manufacturers, who lobbied strongly for a recycling focus and against a push toward bioplastics.  Their interest, of course, is to maintain the high production levels of conventional plastics and avoid an erosion of their market share at the hands of alternative materials now being developed.

See the complete official text of the new law here.

To find out about our participation in the Mexico Today program, please go here.

As a benefit of our participation in the Mexico Today program, we are happy to offer our readers an opportunity to win an expenses-paid trip to a flashy resort and spa in beautiful Huatulco on Mexico’s exotic Oaxacan coast.  No purchase necessary, go here for the details.  You have to “like” the Mexico Today Facebook page to participate, but we’re sure you would like it anyway.  And if you’re not on Facebook, frankly we salute you, but it’s going to be kind of hard to win the free vacation.

Not long ago, we received a kind invitation from Ogilvy Public Relations (OPR) in New York to contribute to the Mexico Today branding program underwritten by Mexico’s Secretaría de Turismo.  The program is aimed at utilizing social media platforms to spread the word that despite the nasty headlines currently in vogue, Mexico is actually still a really great place to visit.

We were happy to accept OPR’s kind invitation, for two main reasons.  First, we will get paid for our contributions of content to the program’s platforms, which is more than we can say for some other invitations we have received in response to our blog.  And second, it’s a welcome opportunity to write about how great Mexico is.  Because you know what?  It is great!  OK, we’ve got some ish, which we discuss elsewhere in detail in this forum (for example, here and here).  But Mexico is an enormous country, most of which is as delightful and fascinating to get to know as it always has been.  Any gushing we do on Mexico Today’s pages about how swell Mexico is will be nothing we wouldn’t tell our foreign friends over drinks anyway, although we’ll leave out some of the particularly colorful adjectives to make it, you know, easier reading.

So the program launches later this week and hopefully it will become a worldwide viral sensation, bigger even than Vancouver Riot Kiss or Keyboard Cat.  You can be ahead of the curve by visiting http://www.facebook.com/MexicoToday right now.