Thread: White House wants new US-Mexico trucking program

White House wants new US-Mexico trucking program
Mar 16, 2009 2:09 PM EST
WASHINGTON - The White House says it wants to work with lawmakers to restore a program that allows a cross-border trucking program with Mexico.

Mexico on Monday put in place tariffs on 90 U.S. products after Washington canceled a program that allowed some trucks from Mexico to operate in the U.S.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the administration wants to work with Congress to come up with a plan that would restore that program.

Lawmakers had safety concerns and other reservations and did away with the program in last week's spending bill.

Gibbs says the White House is working with Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota to write a bill that would deal with lawmakers' concerns.



The Associated Press

Just found this story off my phone, if someone could provide a source link that would be sweet! We need to stop this outrage of safety!

And just as news was Obama did not approve of this plan.......wish they would make up their minds!

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... D720090316

U.S. farm exports at risk over Mexico truck dispute
Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:40pm EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. wheat, beef, rice and bean exports to Mexico face possible retaliatory duties in a dispute over whether Mexican trucks will be able to operate in the United States, Republican lawmakers said on Monday.

Mexico said earlier on Monday it would raise tariffs on 90 U.S. industrial and agricultural goods in reprisal for U.S. cancellation of a pilot cross-border trucking program. That program was intended to move the United States closer to implementing a commitment it made under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Because Congress has terminated the pilot program in violation of our NAFTA obligations, Mexico has announced that it will retaliate against us, as it is entitled to do, by increasing duties on $2.4 billion of U.S. exports of key commodities like wheat, beans, beef, and rice," Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, said in statement.

Congress killed the pilot program, which allowed some Mexican trucks to travel long distances in the United States, in a 2009 appropriations bill recently signed by President Barack Obama.

"Unfortunately, this is a predictable reaction by the Mexican government to a policy that now puts the United States in clear violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and was inappropriately inserted into the Omnibus appropriations bill," said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican.

Mexican Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz said Mexico would soon publish a list of goods to be hit with the increased duties.

MEXICO A MAJOR GRAIN MARKET

Last year, Mexico was the top export destination for U.S. rice, the No. 2 destination for soybeans and the third largest buyer of U.S. wheat, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the White House wanted to work with lawmakers, Mexican officials and the U.S. trade representative to come up with a new trucking scheme to replace the canceled program.

When it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States agreed to allow Mexican trucks to travel on U.S. highways beginning in 1995. Under a pilot program, a limited number of Mexican trucks were being allowed to drive beyond a zone near the U.S. border.

The recently passed legislation to fund most U.S. government operations through the rest of the 2009 fiscal year included an amendment by Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, to kill the trucking program.

"Congress has opposed the (trucking) project in the past because of concerns about the process that led to the program's establishment and its operation," Gibbs told a briefing.

"The president has tasked the Department of Transportation to work with the U.S. trade representative and the Department of State, along with leaders in Congress and Mexican officials to propose legislation creating a new trucking project that will meet the legitimate concerns of Congress and our NAFTA commitments," he said.

Gibbs said Dorgan had written the White House to "express his willingness to work with the administration in good faith to address this issue."

(Reporting by David Alexander and Doug Palmer and Noel Randewich in Mexico City; Editing by Eric Walsh)

http://sev.prnewswire.com/transportatio ... 009-1.html

Hoffa Denounces Mexican Tariff Threat Over Unsafe Trucks


Mexican Government Would Raise Tariffs Over Safety Issue


WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today said the Mexican government's threat to raise tariffs on U.S. exports is an absurd overreaction to the shutdown of the unsafe cross-border trucking pilot program.


Congress ended the program as part of the recent Omnibus appropriations bill.


"The right response from Mexico would be to make sure its drivers and trucks are safe enough to use our highways without endangering our drivers," Hoffa said. "The border must stay closed until Mexico holds up its end of the bargain."


According to published reports, the U.S. government spent $500 million on the pilot program, which began in September 2007. Only about three Mexican trucks per day traveled beyond the border zone since then, according to the Transportation Department's office of inspector general.


"The U.S. needs to stop agreeing to trade deals like NAFTA that allow our own safety standards to deteriorate," Hoffa said.


Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hard-working men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Website: http://www.teamster.org/

Mexico on Monday put in place tariffs on 90 U.S. products after Washington canceled a program that allowed some trucks from Mexico to operate in the U.S.

Someone needs to tell mexico to stick it! Perhaps the US should impose a tariff on every illegal invader from mexico!

I knew our spineless politicians would cave as soon as mexico raised a stink...as usual!!!!