Thread: Companies Caught in the Middle of U.S.-Mexico Trucking Dispu

Companies caught in the middle of U.S.-Mexico trucking dispute

12:29 AM CST on Sunday, March 14, 2010

By JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News
jlanders@dallasnews.com

WASHINGTON – After a year of trade sanctions that U.S. companies complain are draining away cash and jobs, the long battle over whether Mexico's trucks should be allowed on U.S. highways rolls on.

Mexico is doing the sanctioning. But the battlefield is in Congress, between allies of the Teamsters union who say Mexican trucks are not safe and business supporters who say safety concerns are a canard for protecting U.S. truckers from competition.

Congress is deadlocked on trade matters, even as Brazil, in a cotton-growing dispute, threatens to join Mexico in retaliating for a U.S. refusal to live up to trade agreements.

Anne Crews, a vice president at Mary Kay Inc., said her company is caught in the middle of both disputes. The Addison-based company has paid $5.4 million to Mexico over the past year in personal care product tariffs and added sales taxes because of the trucking dispute.

Brazil has said tariffs of as much as 100 percent on U.S. goods will also hit personal care products.

"We're very disappointed, frankly, that we're continuing to have to discuss the situation," Crews said.

Obama administration officials say they're working in Congress to find a deal that would open the border and lift Mexican tariffs totaling $2.4 billion a year. The Brazilian dispute over U.S. subsidies to cotton growers involves tariffs of $591 million but could also jeopardize some U.S. patents and other intellectual property.

"We have heard from American exporters," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Tuesday. "We understand the sense of urgency. We will work as quickly as we can to see if we can't come up with an acceptable solution."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has assured exporters that he's hopeful a deal can be reached soon. But he said the same thing a year ago.

"We have not yet floated any proposals with Mexico and look forward to consulting with members of Congress," the department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Thursday in a statement.

The Teamsters, meanwhile, say they see no movement on the matter.

"We got the border closed to unsafe Mexican trucks, and we're keeping it closed," Teamsters president James Hoffa said last month at a Washington rally. "The Teamsters did that; nobody else did that – the Teamsters did that."

Trucking access was part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, opening commerce between the United States, Mexico and Canada. U.S. and Canadian truckers move freely over their border, but Mexico and the United States have spent years hashing out a common set of safety and licensing rules.


Pilot program

A pilot program allowing some closely inspected Mexican trucks to move into the United States was suspended in 2009, when Congress halted funding for the program.

The funding freeze has lapsed, and LaHood has said the administration is trying to negotiate with about 25 members of Congress on how to satisfy their safety concerns and reopen the highways enough to satisfy Mexico.

The Mexican Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying Mexico "had no choice" but to turn to sanctions once the demonstration project was suspended, adding, "We continue to seek every opportunity for dialogue and engagement with the administration and Congress on this issue."

All the Mary Kay products shipped to Mexico and Brazil are made at the company's plant off Regal Row in Dallas. Crews said that the company is absorbing the Mexican tariffs to maintain market share and that no employees have lost their jobs because of the trucking fight.

Still, Crews said the firm "will continue to investigate alternatives" to its Dallas production as long as the tariffs remain.


Jobs on the line

Companies such as Mary Kay that are caught up in the trucking dispute argue that the tariffs are now a jobs issue.

"We've got 16,000 jobs lost or at risk of being lost," said Doug Goudie, director of international trade policy for the National Association of Manufacturers.

"Chemicals, printing paper, personal care products, machinery, even dog and cat food, where we are Mexico's major supplier, are off almost 45 percent," he said.

Some Republicans have taken the same tack.

"How long must America's farmers and manufacturers be punished while the White House and Congress refuse to resolve the problem they created? They've wasted a full year," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

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1st.... lady you know what you can do with your Mary Kay! if you need business that bad maybe you should go out of business...this is about Greed $$$$$$$$$ they never have enough and are willing to destroy the U.S. to get it.

2nd....cut off all aid to Mexico or anyone else who has trade sanctions against us. No more arms no more Hellicopters, no more help with your drug war or aid for it. stuff it!!!

It just pisses me off that we actually have the upper hand here and our congress does not have the guts to use it....it is time to stop pandering!