Thank you for contacting me regarding legislation to allow Mexican trucks beyond our Commercial Zone. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) included provisions that required the U.S. to permit cross-border trucking with Mexico. However, since 1982, Mexican trucks have not been permitted to travel past the Commercial Zone (generally 25 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border). In order for the U.S. to comply with NAFTA, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) introduced a pilot program that would grant 100 Mexican trucking companies access to U.S. highways, in exchange for access to Mexican highways for 100 U.S. trucking companies. This pilot program began on September 6, 2007, and if allowed to continue, will last for one year. At the end of the year, the DOT will evaluate the next steps of safely implementing the NAFTA provisions.

I have been a longtime supporter of making sure all trucks on our highways are safe. In the Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 Transportation Appropriations bill, Senators Murray, Shelby, and I successfully passed an amendment which ensured that the U.S. had the ability to weigh trucks at high-use crossings. I was concerned that varying weight limits between the U.S. and Mexico could cause severe damage to U.S. highways and pose a safety risk to American drivers. This was just one of the 22 safety requirements we championed that the Department had to meet before implementing the trucking provisions of NAFTA. I was also able to obtain $15 million for the Texas Department of Transportation to construct border safety inspection facilities. The Mexican carriers involved in the program are required to comply with all U.S. safety and environmental standards.

On September 10, 2007, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced an amendment to the FY 2008 Transportation Appropriations bill to remove the funding for the cross-border trucking program. The amendment passed by a vote of 74-24. I voted against this amendment because under NAFTA, the United States agreed to permit cross-border passenger and cargo services beginning in 1995 in border states. A NAFTA dispute settlement panel ruled on February 6, 2001, that the blanket exclusion of Mexican trucks from the United States violated our NAFTA commitments. Given that ruling, Mexico has the right to retaliate against U.S. exports up to the same dollar value of losses as those caused by the U.S. action. Mexico estimates those losses may be as high as $1 to $2 billion a year. Should Senator Dorgan's amendment be included in the final conference report for the appropriations bill, the program would be halted immediately and the DOT will be prohibited from carrying out the program during FY 2008.

Though I did not vote to terminate the pilot project, I did support Senator John Cornyn's (R-TX) amendment, which would have imposed stricter safety regulations on the DOT while carrying out the pilot program and would have stopped the program at any point if the DOT Inspector General determined that the DOT was not safely and effectively enforcing all requirements of the program. The Cornyn amendment failed by a vote of 69-29.

I appreciate hearing from you and hope you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.


Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison