Thread: US, Mexico sign cross-border trucking agreement

Associated Press

US, Mexico sign cross-border trucking agreement

By JONATHAN M. KATZ , 07.06.11, 02:25 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY -- U.S. and Mexican officials signed an agreement Wednesday allowing each country's trucks to traverse the other's highways, implementing a key provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement after nearly two decades of bickering.

Transportation secretaries Ray LaHood and Dionisio Perez-Jacome signed the three-year memorandum, which is based on an agreement announced in March by Presidents Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon.

NAFTA, signed in 1994, had called for Mexican trucks to have unrestricted access to highways in border states by 1995 and full access to all U.S. highways by January 2000. Canadian trucks have no limits on where they can go.

But until now, Mexican trucks have seldom been allowed farther than a buffer zone on the U.S. side of the border. In retaliation, Mexico had imposed higher tariffs on dozens of U.S. products.

The Mexican government has now agreed to suspend those tariffs as long as the agreement is in place.

The public debate surrounding the accord had mostly focused on the safety of Mexican trucks. But labor unions and other groups were strongly opposed to the agreement, which they say will cost Americans trucking and other jobs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation says the safety concerns have now been resolved. Electronic monitoring systems will track how many hours the trucks are in service. Drivers will also have to pass safety reviews, drug tests and assessments of their English-language and U.S. traffic sign-reading skills. Mexico has the authority to demand the same of U.S. truck drivers entering their territory.

But those won't do much to resolve the U.S. debate over the migration of jobs, which dates back to the NAFTA debates of the early 1990s. The question: Will a freer flow of cross-border cargo traffic boost business and allow owners to hire more workers, or will it ship U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers who work for lower pay?

LaHood argued the first position Wednesday in an email to The Associated Press.

"By opening the door to long-haul trucking between the United States and Mexico, America's third largest trading partner, we will create jobs and opportunity for our people and support economic development in both nations," he said.

Other U.S. groups from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to the National Christmas Tree Association celebrated the end of the punitive tariffs and hoped for higher sales. The tariffs tax $2.4 billion worth of U.S. exports according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, including tariffs up to 45 percent on certain fruits according to a trade group.

Those tariffs will be cut in half within 10 days and then eliminated completely when full cross-border traffic begins.

But some U.S. truckers were incensed.

"This program will jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands of U.S.-based small-business truckers and professional truck drivers and undermine the standard of living for the rest of the driver community," said Todd Spencer, vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

The organization's president, Jim Johnson, was more curt. "If the agreement is good for the U.S. why the hell is (Sec. LaHood) sneaking down there to sign it?" he said in a statement emailed to the news media.

Associated Press writer Suzanne Gamboa in Washington contributed to this report.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/07/ ... 51861.html

I'm sure American truckers are really, really anxious to start traveling Mexican highways - not.

Here comes the drugs.

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

I'm sure American truckers are really, really anxious to start traveling Mexican highways - not.

Yeah, until they get home (if they're lucky) and find their truck riddled with bullet holes...

I would have expected the Truckers Unions in the U S to put up a fight but I guess they are just pawns as well.

Originally Posted by PaulRevere9

. . . I would have expected the Truckers Unions in the U S to put up a fight but I guess they are just pawns as well.

The trucker's unions have been fighting this since 1994.
That is the main reason it has been held up all of these years.

Teamster Delegates Stand Strong Against Cross-Border Trucking ...
www.teamster.org/
June 27, 2006 – Teamster Delegates Stand Strong Against Cross-Border Trucking ... Convention committed the union to continuing the fight to keep dangerous ...
http://www.teamster.org/content/teamste ... r-trucking

Here come the illegals. Might as well bring border patrol home.

W

Just what the truckers need.

They are REJOICING at Tyson and WalMarts across the country.

The Chinese just completed their bypass of the West Coast port tariffs also. So Peking is dong a dance about now too.

Kansas City, here I come. It will be the new inland seaport for China, via Mexico.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Here come the illegals. Might as well bring border patrol home.

W

============================================

North American Union

* 1965- Council of Americas founded by David Rockefeller

* 1994- NAFTA activated by Canada, US, Mexico

* 2003- Council American Free Trade Area (CAFTA)

* 2004- Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)

* 2006- SPP signed by Canada, Mexico, USA. NAFTA Highway Supreme Court Authority Succeeded. FTAA strengthens.

The organization's president, Jim Johnson, was more curt. "If the agreement is good for the U.S. why the hell is (Sec. LaHood) sneaking down there to sign it?" he said in a statement emailed to the news media.

This saya it all. Just like all the other governmental transparencies Obama spoke of.