Thread: Mexican Trucks Stay Home After 17-Year Push to Open U.S. Bor

November 08, 2011 5:00 AMtext size: TT

Mexican Trucks Stay Home After 17-Year Push to Open U.S. Border

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- It took 17 years and $2.4 billion in trade tariffs to get the U.S. Transportation Department to let a Mexican long-haul truck cross the border last month. It's unlikely that many more will line up, the head of Mexico's biggest trucking organization said.

The governments of Mexico and the U.S. say the 18-month pilot program resolves the issue of how to implement the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement while keeping unsafe and polluting trucks off the road. Yet enough business barriers remain that trucking companies will probably stick to the solutions they've developed in the interim, executives in both countries say.

Most Mexican trucking companies won't make long-term investments in technology to meet tougher U.S. pollution controls because they're not sure their licenses to enter the U.S. will last longer than the program, said Jose Refugio Munoz, chief executive officer of trucking group Camara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, or Canacar. A similar pilot project ran from 2007 to 2009 before it was canceled.

“We've had it up to here with experiments,â€

Transportes Olympic has 54 trucks and 61 drivers, according to Guillermo Perez, a spokesman. Only one truck has permission to travel in the U.S., and Transportes Olympic will try to get more approved little by little

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UPDATED:11/8/2011 10:15:00

Mexican Trucking Companies Waiting for Certainty in Cross-Border Program

Most Mexican trucking companies are not willing to make the long-term investments to participate in the latest cross-border pilot program with the United States, in part because of uncertainties over the program's future, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Companies are reluctant to invest in technology to meet tougher U.S. pollution controls, Jose Refugio Munoz, CEO of the Mexican trucking association Camara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, known as or Canacar, told Bloomberg.

The current 18-month pilot program followed a prior similar pilot program, which wan 2007 to 2009 before it was canceled after President Obama took office.

The Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration resumed the program after Mexico said it would put more than $2 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods in protest of the suspended program, first outlined under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

FMCSA last month issued the first permit to a Mexican trucking company, Transportes Olympic, and a lone truck from that carrier remains the only cleared truck for U.S. entry under the program.

http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemp ... ryid=28031

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