Mexico's congress votes to charge cruise ship passengers $42 per head for port calls

MEXICO CITY -- Cruise ship industry players are up in arms after the lower house of Mexico’s Congress voted this week to charge a $42 immigration levy for every passenger on cruise ships that dock in Mexico.

Two-thirds of the money raised, moreover, would go to the Mexican army, not to improve port facilities.

The Mexican Association of Shipping Agents cried foul late Thursday, saying the charges could make Mexico uncompetitively expensive for cruise ships.

“If this measure is implemented, it would make Mexican ports of call among the most expensive in the world, severely affecting their competitiveness with other Caribbean destinations,” the association said in a statement.

The group called on Mexico's Senate not to approve the measure, which calls for two-thirds of the income from the immigration charge to be handed over to the country's defense department, for reasons that are unclear.

In the past, cruise ship passengers had been exempted from the immigration fee, because they sleep aboard the vessels and some don't even get off the ship during port calls. They would apparently be charged the $42 fee anyway, according to the new budget law.

There have been initiatives throughout the world to curb cruise ships for fear of over-tourism, but that train left the station long ago in the case of Mexico’s Caribbean coast. Cozumel has been the world's busiest port of call for years, welcoming about four million cruise passengers per year.

“It is necessary to eliminate the exemption from immigration document payment for foreign passengers who enter Mexico aboard cruise ships,” according to the new law.

Mexico's ruling Morena party is already running enormous budget deficits to fund pet building projects like railways and oil refineries — some of which are being built by the army — and is desperate to find new revenue sources.

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