(Bloomberg) -- A bipartisan group of US senators is proposing legislation to pressure Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to back down from plans to expropriate a port and limestone quarry from Alabama’s Vulcan Materials Co.
The bill set to be introduced Monday would prevent boats using the port, if taken over by Mexico, from unloading or getting repairs in the US or territories like Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. A similar proposal was put forward in the House of Representatives in May.
The new measure intends to render the port, on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, useless for shipping or cruises, according to aides to Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, the bill’s author.
“I strongly condemn AMLO’s threats against Vulcan,” Hagerty said in a statement, referring to the outgoing president by his initials. “No nation or president, and especially one of our largest trade partners, should be allowed to bully an American firm without consequences.”
While the legislation doesn’t name specific companies or countries, it’s meant to support Vulcan in its dispute with Mexico. Its co-authors include Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, both Republicans, and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.
The bill will expire at the end of the current legislative session in January. Its supporters would likely need to attach it to another moving piece of legislation to pass it through both chambers before then, and they are looking for opportunities to enact it.
Lopez Obrador said last month that his government was going through all the required legal processes to turn the land that Vulcan has owned and developed for decades into a natural protected area, which the company says is illegal and equivalent to expropriation. The nationalist president leaves office early next week and will be succeeded by his protege, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Vulcan said in a statement that the planned move is a violation of Mexico’s commitments under free-trade deals and could have a chilling effect on investment.
“This action robs us of our land use and we intend to defend ourselves using all available legal avenues,” the company said.
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