MEXICAN TRUCKS * USA - DOT May Release Mexican Trucking Plan Within Week

Agency is expected to have plan ready for May 19 Calderón visit to White House

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -May 14, 2010: -- The Department of Transportation is expected to brief members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a plan for cross-border trucking with Mexico before Mexican President Felipe Calderón visits Washington next week, according to a report today from Inside U.S. Trade... President Obama may present a trucking plan to Calderón when they meet at the White House May 19, anonymous sources told Inside U.S. Trade, but the same sources said immigration and Mexico's drug war could bump trucking from the meeting's agenda... Cross-border trucking with Mexico is required by the North American Free Trade Agreement, however, and supporters of a new program say opponents are concerned with the potential loss of U.S. jobs, not highway safety... Any such program may face strong opposition in Congress. Last month a group of 78 members of Congress, mainly Democrats, demanded the Obama administration renegotiate NAFTA to eliminate its Mexican trucking mandate... (Photo from runoftheworld: Tijuana border traffic)


* Opinion: Considering the cross-border issue - The Other Side of the Border

USA -Blog4Truckers, by Timothy Brady -19 May 2010: -- With the upcoming visit of President Calderon of Mexico to Washington, I thought it wise to look at the Mexican view of the Cross-Border trucking issue. In this article I’m going to report the facts... The different sides on the immigration issue are polarized. So it is not surprising that same division exists discussing the US allowing Mexican trucks to deliver freight to destinations within our borders and pick up loads from the US with destinations in Mexico... Keep in mind, these are the same arrangements we have with Canadian truckers... The message I’d like to pass on is that the U.S. should depoliticize the transportation element of the Free Trade Agreement because the only thing that has resulted is uncertainty between businesses of both countries... Unfortunately, this topic has been politicized in the U.S. and has been used as an election issue since 1995 when the border should have begun to open, and each election cycle is vulnerable to the pressures exhibited by the Teamsters. This causes the U.S. government to breach its treaty obligations with the government of Mexico...