Thread: DOT makes cross-border pitch

DOT makes cross-border pitch

April 8, 2011
By David Hendricks

The U.S. Transportation Department on Friday announced a proposal for a new, three-year, U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking program that would allow Mexican drivers to make U.S. deliveries beyond the border zone.

The proposal is the next step toward Mexico eliminating prohibitive tariffs against numerous U.S. exports to Mexico, a move that could happen within a few months.

The new proposal follows the previous test program, originally proposed by San Antonio business leaders, that lasted from 2007 to 2009 before Congress ended funding.

The Transportation Department posted the proposal in a Federal Register notice. The public will have 30 days to submit comments. After the comment period, the department will develop and implement a final program. A federal government shutdown is not expected to affect the comment period unless the shutdown lasts more than 30 days.

Both countries then must sign the agreement. Mexico has promised to cut in half the amount of the tariffs imposed on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. food and manufactured goods annually once the agreement is signed. Mexico will lift the remaining tariffs once Mexican trucks are authorized to make U.S. deliveries.

The Transportation Department and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be able to use available funding to start the program without congressional approval, a department spokesman said Friday.

Friday was the first time the department has said it could restart cross-border trucking within its own rule-making authority and without funding approval from Congress.

In early March, the U.S. and Mexican governments revealed negotiations leading toward a resumption of cross-border trucking. In 2009, the Mexican government imposed the punitive tariffs because the United States had failed to comply with the trucking provisions of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

In 2010, Mexico revised the list of U.S. exports subject to prohibitive tariffs and increased the number of food and manufactured items to 99, up from the initial list of 89 products. Numerous U.S. companies have lost their Mexican markets because of the tariffs, and it's estimated that more than 10,000 U.S. jobs have been lost.

The U.S. Transportation Department will pay as much as $2.5 million from the federal Highway Trust Fund to equip Mexican trucks with electronic data recorders to ensure safety compliance, according to a Transportation Department fact sheet quoted by Bloomberg News.

The data recorders are necessary to ensure Mexican companies are complying with safety regulations, the department said in a memorandum emailed to industry groups Friday. U.S. funding will stop when the three-year program for cross-border truck traffic ends, the department said.

Friday's developments are the latest after more than 15 years of delays of the NAFTA cross-border provisions that were supposed to phase in beginning in December 1995. The Clinton administration initially delayed cross-border trucking that month, citing safety concerns over Mexican trucks and drivers.

San Antonio business leaders proposed the first cross-border trucking test program because they wanted to position the city to better service truck freight. The goal also was to move freight more efficiently throughout North America and cut costs for consumers.

“It's encouraging that we're moving forward,â€

Mexico has promised to cut in half the amount of the tariffs imposed on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. food and manufactured goods annually once the agreement is signed. Mexico will lift the remaining tariffs once Mexican trucks are authorized to make U.S. deliveries.

[quote:vbso31j8]

Lets see. It looks as though we open the border and the tariffs go away making it cheaper to ship raw materials down to Mexico to be processed or manufactured, then we can put them onto the Mexican truck or transportation system for cheaper transport costs back to the gringo consumer.

Frozen carne asada burritos anyone?

[/quote:vbso31j8]

Somone in the U.S. Congress needs to step up immediately and file a bill to defund this farce! I'm sick and tired of sitting by and watching us lose middle class jobs. Congress needs to stop cowering in a corner everytime businesses, corporations, and the Chamber of Commerce (local, state, and national) start screaming like chicken little! The sky is not falling, and if it was, it's because of their greed!

better start watching all those trucks and look closely at them