July 24, 2007, 10:40PM
House votes to keep trucks near border


Bloomberg News

Mexican trucks would be barred from traveling beyond U.S. border areas for a year under a House vote that would block a test program by President Bush's administration.

The program, which would allow 100 Mexican transportation companies to carry cargo into the U.S. beyond a 25-mile border area, couldn't begin in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the House decided Tuesday in approving an amendment on a voice vote.

The vote is a victory for auto-safety groups and labor unions such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that have been fighting the pilot program, saying the Mexican trucks wouldn't meet safety stan- dards.

The Bush administration planned to begin the test in April. Requirements imposed by Congress have bottled it up since then, and there is no start date, said Melissa Mazzella DeLaney, a spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Restrictions against trucks leaving border areas were struck down in 2001 by North American Free Trade Agreement arbiters, who ruled that the curbs violated the 1994 trade accord among the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

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