This is no surprise!
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports cross-border trucking pilot program
By Staff -- 4/23/2007


WASHINGTON—In a letter sent by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Senate Committee on Appropriations last Friday, a request was made to remove an amendment introduced last month by the Appropriations Committee refuses to finance the funds needed to take the required steps the launch the Department of Transportation’s cross-border trucking pilot program between the United States and Mexico.

The pilot program, which was introduced by DOT Secretary Mary Peters in February, was originally scheduled to launch this month, with 100 carefully screened Mexican trucking companies allowed into the U.S. for international deliveries only and to operate beyond the 20-to-25 mile commercial zones along the U.S. Southwest border. And later this year U.S.-based carriers would be allowed into Mexico under the same restrictions.

The proposed amendment, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce letter, would prohibit the use of funds to implement the pilot until “simultaneous and comparable authority to operate within Mexico is made available to motor carriers domiciled in the United States.” It added that this amendment puts the brakes on the expansion of the United States and Mexico’s mutually beneficial trade relationship by creating an unnecessary delay in implementing the cross-border trucking provisions of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

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