FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Clayton Boyce

Feb. 23, 2007 (703) 838-7902



ATA Supports NAFTA-Required Opening of US-Mexico Border
Pilot Project Announced by USDOT is a Step Toward Efficiency
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Trucking Associations supports the Administration’s long-awaited move to implement the safe, efficient and secure flow of cargo across the border between United States and Mexico, as required by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Today’s announcement by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters and Mexican Secretary of Communications and Transportation Luis Téllez implements NAFTA’s access provisions with a limited one-year pilot program. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mexican carriers operating in the United States must comply with all of the safety, environmental, insurance, homeland security and other regulatory requirements that U.S. carriers currently meet.

Mexican carriers must apply and receive authority from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration before operating in the United States, and will be allowed to transport only international cargo, not U.S. domestic cargo. Mexican carriers must prove they have insurance coverage and pay all state and federal operational taxes and registration fees that are applicable to U.S. carriers, according to DOT.

“Such regulation of Mexican carriers operating in the United States will ensure a level playing field in cross-border operations,” said Clayton Boyce, vice president of Public Affairs for the nation’s premier trucking industry trade group. “Ensuring a level playing field also requires that when U.S. carriers are to begin operations in Mexico, the permitting and regulatory processes put in place by the government of Mexico must be fair, clear and transparent.”

U.S. and Mexican officials announced Feb. 22 that truck safety inspectors working for FMCSA will be able to travel in Mexico to conduct safety audits of carriers seeking to operate in the United States, as required by Congress, indicating that both governments are committed to safety in cross-border trucking operations.

Today’s announcement about the pilot program recognized the need to improve efficiency at the border. Every day nearly $2.4 billion in trade flows between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Seventy-five percent of the value of that trade is carried by truck. Under NAFTA, U.S. exports to Mexico and Canada have increased 157 percent.

Background:

In a trade dispute in 1982, the United States limited Mexican trucks to commercial zones near the border. President George H.W. Bush signed the NAFTA treaty in 1992 and Congress ratified it in 1993. President Bill Clinton signed implementing legislation the same year, but trucking provisions were put on hold in 1995. In 2001 a NAFTA dispute resolution panel ruled that the United States could not ban trucks from Mexico. The same year Congress imposed 22 safety requirements that had to be met before opening the border. The U.S. DOT certified and its Inspector General confirmed that those requirements have been met.

Performing a single truck shipment between the United States and Mexico now requires three drivers and three tractors. A trailer crossing the border must be transferred from the originating carrier to a drayage carrier, cross the border and be transferred again to a carrier that can take it to its destination. There were about nine million such crossings in 2005. When the border is fully open, the originating carrier will be able to cross the border and deliver the shipment directly to its destination, which will reduce costs, inefficiency, pollution and transit times.


The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

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