Mexico sends first long-haul trucks to SC, NY

Associated Press - September 10, 2007 8:34 AM ET

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Two Mexican 18-wheelers have become the first trucks to operate deep in the United States under a NAFTA-mandated program that's been criticized on both sides of the border.

The trucks crossed into the United States carrying steel construction materials to New York and South Carolina and will haul similar products from Arkansas and Alabama back across the border.

The United States granted the permission Thursday as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have been allowed to operate in the United States only within a 25-mile zone along the border.

Unrestricted access was supposed to begin in 1995, but truckers and other groups on both sides of the border have objected to the program.

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