Mexico’s Congress votes to charge sailors $42 per port call

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Shipping industry players are up in arms after Mexico’s lower house of Congress voted this week to impose a $42 tax on every passenger on a cruise ship that docks in Mexico.

Two-thirds of the money raised, too, would go to the Mexican military, not to improving the port’s infrastructure.

The Mexican Association of Shipping Agents cried foul on Thursday, saying the charges could make Mexico less expensive to cruise.

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“If this measure is implemented, it will make Mexican ports among the most expensive in the world, seriously affecting their competitiveness with other Caribbean destinations,” the agency said in a statement.

The group called on the Mexican Senate not to approve the measure, which would require two-thirds of the revenue from immigration fees to go to the defense ministry, for unclear reasons.

In the past, seafarers were exempted from the entry fee, because they sleep on the ship and some do not even get off the ship during port calls. They would be fined $42,000 anyway, according to the new budget law.

There have been moves around the world to stop cruise ships for fear of over-tourism, but that train left port early in the case of Mexico’s Caribbean Sea. Cozumel has been the busiest port in the world for years, welcoming around 4 million passengers a year.

“It is important to eliminate the exemption from paying immigration documents for foreign travelers entering Mexico by cruise ship,” according to the new law.

Mexico’s ruling Morena party is already running a huge budget shortfall to pay for capital construction projects such as railways and oil refineries – some of which are being built by the military – and is desperate for new funding.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at ihd

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