Automotive Associations Against the “Crooked Vehicle Regulatory Institute” in Baja California

BAJA CALIFORNIA – Shortly after the Congress of the state of Baja California approved the “law initiative that created the Institute of Vehicle Identity and Fight against Pollution of the State of Baja California,” which was sent to this legislative body on December 30, 2019, by the entity’s governor, Jaime Bonilla Valdez, the main organizations that represent the automotive sector such as AMDA, ANPACT, AMIA, and INA speak out against the local president for wanting to legalize the smuggling of illegal vehicles in the state.

On February, 26, the 23rd Legislature of Baja California approved by majority vote dictum 32 of the Committee on the Interior, Legislation and Constitutional Points, which contains the initiative proposed by the state governor through which the Baja California Vehicle Identity and Pollution Combat Institute Act is created.

Said dictum established that the aforementioned law aims to “guarantee the safety and integrity of the inhabitants of the state of Baja California, implementing the necessary actions to achieve full identification, location and relationship with the owner of foreign-origin motor vehicles that are within the state, complementing and strengthening the vehicle control function.” In addition to “avoiding pollution to the environment through the creation of the Institute of Vehicle Identity and Pollution Control of the State of Baja California, as a public body, decentralized from the state government, with legal personality and its own assets, technical autonomy and of management for the due fulfillment of its object and attributions.”

Previously, the associations AMIA, AMDA, ANPACT, and INA had already spoken out against said measure, since “the Congress of the state of Baja California intends to approve the census of illegal vehicles through the payment of $1,000 for processing and identification through stickers, granting them rights through a registry scheme of smuggling that also aims to provide the vehicle with a metal plate or plates and a circulation card. The census would cover cards, trucks, buses, motorcycles whatever their type of fuel, as well as trailers.”

They also express that said “law initiative contravenes the federal legal framework, so implementing an institute such as the one proposed would go even further than an alleged regularization, since it seeks to institute a parallel mechanism that will methodically be condescending with those who violate the law, thus systemizing a procedure that gives the green light and fosters a constant situation of illegality, thereby expressing a message of impunity in the country.”

These associations have expressed their discontent in this regard because “in the automotive sector we have welcomed the current policy of fighting corruption, so we consider it inconsistent to support any action that emanates from an act of illegality, thus establishing the officialization of a perverse incentive to impunity.”

For all of the above, AMDA, ANPACT, AMIA, and INA request the intervention of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Secretary of Treasury and Public Credit Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, “to enforce the rule of law of our country, so the existing regulatory supremacy is observed, as well as compliance with the agreements signed between the government of Baja California and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to prevent Baja California from transgressing the powers of the federation and constitutional principles, for the following:

“It violates the constitutional principles of equality and proportionality in the payment of contributions and compliance with customs obligations, when it intends to regulate illegality and contraband, by encouraging non-compliance with federal (customs) provisions when it tries to grant registration rights to illegal vehicles.

“Baja California, under the collaboration agreement, only has powers to seize illegal vehicles; its obligation is to safeguard the state and not to violate the executive power of the federation by omitting the embargo of vehicles that are smuggled.”