美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Companies Uncertain Of NAFTA Trading Under Trump Administration

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Present Trump¹'s threat to change America's trade relationship with Mexico has got businesses on both sides of the border concerned. As Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports, this includes a 130-year-old railroad called Kansas City Southern.

FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE²: I'm standing³ in a rail yard where Kansas City Southern trains are assembled to head south to Mexico carrying American corn, chemicals and car parts. They come back loaded with stuff like refrigerators, finished cars and beer. This is old-school, steel-in-the-ground, heavy industry, built slowly over decades, largely around trade with Mexico.

JASON SEIDL: They are the NAFTA railroad. So anything that's going to negatively impact potential trade with Mexico is going to be a negative for Kansas City Southern.

MORRIS: And Jason Seidl, who's a railroad analyst⁴ with Cowen and Company, says Donald Trump's presidency⁵ threatens that trade. He's targeted the nearly $60 billion trade deficit⁶ with Mexico by threatening to punish companies moving production there and adding a tariff⁷. As he told Scott Pelley on "60 Minutes," he's taking a hard look at NAFTA.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "60 MINUTES")

SCOTT PELLEY: But there is a North American Free Trade Agreement.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And there shouldn't be. It's a disaster.

PELLEY: But it is there.

TRUMP: OK. Yes.

PELLEY: You're president. You're going to have to live with it.

TRUMP: Excuse me. We will either renegotiate it, or we will break it.

MORRIS: The stock market is up sharply since Trump's election, with investors⁸ betting that lower taxes and less regulation will boost most companies' bottom lines. The Dow Jones Railroad Index has climbed about 25 percent since the election. But Seidl says that Trump's protectionist threats have pushed down the price of Kansas City Southern's stock.

SEIDL: Uncertainty⁹ is sort of the No. 1 killer¹⁰ for stock performance. And that's what we have right now. We're one tweet away from it underperforming the group that day. And, you know, based on the president's current tweet rate, I mean, that's (laughter) - that can be a lot of tweets between now and the end of the year.

MORRIS: And it's not just tweets.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Ford¹¹ Motor Company executives say they are dropping plans to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico.

TONY HATCH: This was a big plant, and it was going to be served by Kansas City Southern. And it had business going north and south. And that would have been a minor¹² blow. I think the symbolism makes it a major blow.

MORRIS: Tony Hatch with ABH Consulting says Kansas City Southern serves about a dozen other Mexican auto¹³ assembly plants, so losing one new one isn't crushing. But Hatch says that President Trump is upending carefully laid plants on both sides of the border.

HATCH: For Kansas City Southern, it's been very painful, right? So they've done everything they could. They've invested a lot of money. They've created a really good network. So all of a sudden, you're playing some kind of complicated game. And you get, you know, right to the point where if - you're going to be a leader in the game, and they say, oh, sorry, here's a new set of rules.

MORRIS: Of course, NAFTA has long inspired fierce opposition¹⁴, traditionally from the left. And opponents argue that a new set of rules is long overdue¹⁵. NAFTA's been in place for almost a quarter of a century. Its critics say the agreement has cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs and depressed¹⁶ American wages. Supporters say it's boosted trade with Mexico enormously and kept prices down for consumers. Andrew Selee, vice¹⁷ president of the Woodrow Wilson Center, argues that the free flow of capital and goods has actually preserved North American manufacturing.

ANDREW SELEE: Getting closer together on trade is a good thing for all the economies. We're able to compete against, you know, Europe and Asia and other parts of the world.

MORRIS: Few think trade between the U.S. and Mexico is likely to shut down altogether, but it's likely to change under this administration in ways that seem increasingly hard to predict.

For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City.

(SOUNDBITE OF EMANCIPATOR'S "MAPS")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

5 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

6 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

7 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

8 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

9 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

10 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

11 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

12 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

13 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

14 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

15 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

16 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

17 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。