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MEXICANS' TRUCKS DEBATE * USA - Mexico Seeks Nafta Damages
Truckers Say U.S. Violations Cost Billions Yearly
USA -Transport Topics, by Sean McNally -12 May 2008: -- Mexico’s principal trucking group said its members have lost more than $2 billion a year because the United States has refused to allow cross-border trucking as required by the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement and that it is seeking damages through arbitration... The action by Camara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga, or Canacar, is the latest development in the long dispute over allowing Mexican trucks to deliver freight to destinations within the United States... Canacar said the United States violated NAFTA by “refusing entry of [Mexican trucks] into the United States for provision of trucking services and by prohibiting [them] from investing in United States enterprises that provide such services.”... The value of goods moved by truck between the two nations has grown nearly 50% since Bush moved to open the border. Last year, trucks carried some $230 billion in freight between the nations... In an April 2 letter to the State Department, Canacar said it would “submit a claim to arbitration” under NAFTA, which allows private groups and governments to seek damages... Canacar’s letter does not specify how many years’ worth of damage it would seek. If damages were to start from the last arbitration ruling, the bill could come to nearly $14 billion... The head of DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the United States was trying to meet its NAFTA commitment with the pilot program.“We believe we are in the process of fulfilling our NAFTA obligation by having this demonstration program, and we encourage Canacar to participate and their members,” FMCSA Administrator John Hill told ... However, Mark Maney, a Houston attorney representing Canacar, said viewed the pilot program, which is the subject of unresolved litigation in the United States, as “way too little too late.” ... “That is a very limited program that has no real effect,” Canacar Operating Director Oscar Moreno told TT... “We want the full NAFTA program implemented.”... A spokeswoman for the Teamsters union, which has been a very active opponent of opening the border, said the main issue is highway safety... “The NAFTA tribunal has said that we can impose different admission procedures on trucks from Mexico if safety is a concern, and safety is our concern, and safety was Congress’ concern,” said Leslie Miller... “The Mexican government has not kept its part of the bargain to raise standards to the point where a truck from Mexico is going to have the same level of safety as a truck from the United States.”...
Labels: mexicans' trucks debate
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