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Nov 30, 2011

MEXICAN TRUCKS * USA

* USA - Teamsters Expand Lawsuit Against Mexican Trucks

Washington,DC,USA -AP/NPR -November 23, 2011:  --  The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has expanded its lawsuit against the government in a long-running battle that has stopped Mexican trucks from coming deep into the United States...  In papers filed in federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday, the union says the government must first assess the environmental impact of a pilot project before letting it continue. The first Mexican truck in the pilot program crossed the border last month...  Teamsters President James P. Hoffa says opening the border to the trucks is an attack on the environment, on highway safety and on American truckers and warehouse workers...


* USA - Homeland Security fails to follow-through on cross-border directive

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by Jami Jones -29 Nov 2011: -- With the cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico entering its sixth week, lawmakers are pressing the Department of Homeland Security to issue enforcement guidelines to law enforcement – something Congress mandated in 2006...  The Section 703 of the Safe Port Act of 2006 mandated that the Department of Homeland Security issue guidelines for federal state and local law enforcement officials on how to identify noncompliance with federal laws that apply to cross-border trucking...  Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Candice Miller, chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, wrote a letter to the secretary of Homeland Security asking why the agency had not complied with the mandate...

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Nov 4, 2011

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * USA

* DC - Rockefeller challenges FMCSA’s ‘lax oversight’ of cross-border program

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line, by Jami Jones -31 Oct 2011: -- The early days of the cross-border pilot program has one lawmaker concerned about the apparent “lax oversight” of the program and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s commitment to a safe and transparent program...  Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-WV, sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, detailing what Rockefeller sees as missteps by the agency from the onset of the program...  The letter details FMCSA’s failure to detect problems with the safety records, a history of canceled insurance, and the questionable ability to meet emission requirements of the first applicant to pass the Pre-Authority Safety Audit, Grupo Behr...  Rockefeller contends that any motor carrier operating in the program should remain under provisional authority until the agency can determine the safety performance of the carrier “as it stands today” ...  The lawmaker also pressed LaHood for FMCSA to increase the transparency in the program to allow for more public participation in the review process of the cross-border program, saying that would “elevate public confidence” that the carriers are meeting all requirements...

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Sep 19, 2011

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * USA - The Disinterest of Mexican Truckers

A Matter of Non-interest: Gracias But No Gracias

Kenton,TENN,USA -B4T -(originally published) May 2011: -- What if the U.S. finally opens its borders to Mexican trucks and they don’t show up? ... Ironically, the long simmering feud between the U.S. and Mexico over letting Mexican truck companies carry Mexican goods to U.S. destinations may be a matter of little interest to Mexican truckers...  Didn’t anybody ask Mexican truckers if they were interested? ... The first clue that this might be a non-starter was in September 2007, when the Bush administration decided to try a one-year pilot program limited to one hundred Mexican trucking companies. They finally got twenty-nine, which ultimately resulted in only 98 Mexican trucks on American highways...  Herb Schmidt, president and CEO of Con-way Truckload, the truckload unit of Con-way Inc., which has interline relationships with 80 Mexican trucking companies, estimates that only 5% of Con-way’s Mexican partners have even considered serving the U.S. beyond the twenty-five mile commercial zone... “Mexican truckers are scared to death of our tort system,” says Schmidt. They’re deterred by the cost of obtaining insurance plus the risk of being hit with a massive jury award in the event of an accident... Then there's the expense. Mexican carriers who choose to expand into the United States face significant upfront costs for labor, maintenance, facilities and equipment. The typical Mexican trucker has a fleet of six trucks, hardly enough to justify the kind of capital investment needed to play in the world's biggest economy...  Why then have the Teamsters so actively opposed cross-border trucking? “That’s a good question,” says Lana Batts, a partner in transport advisory firm Transport Capital Partners and one-time vice-president for government affairs for the American Trucking Association. “I have no idea why the Teamsters would waste their political capital on this issue” ...  We Americans can be pretty chauvinistic about our country, superior in so many ways to other countries... And frankly, the trouble with Mexican truckers is they can be so un-American!...

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Sep 8, 2011

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * USA - Teamsters Sue to Stop US-Mexico Truck Program

Public Citizen joins union in lawsuit challenging cross-border trucking pilot

(Photo: Traffic in the border USA / MEX)

San Francisco,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commercee, by William B. Cassidy -Sep 6, 2011: -- The Teamsters union filed a lawsuit last week in an attempt to block the Obama administration’s plans for a cross-border trucking pilot project with Mexico...  The Department of Transportation is expected to allow the first Mexican carriers to join the three-year pilot project to roll into the U.S. early this month...  The Teamsters and Public Citizen filed the lawsuit against the DOT and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco...  The union and consumer advocacy group have long opposed granting Mexican truckers greater access to the U.S. beyond the border commercial zone...  The program would offer Mexican carriers a route to U.S. operating authority similar to that held by many Canadian truckers that operate in the U.S...  Mexican truckers that eventually receive U.S. operating authority would still be barred from transporting domestic freight within the U.S...


* USA - DOT Will Take Public Comments on Mexican-Carrier Safety Audits

(Photo: Mexican border)
Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics -12 Sept 2011: -- The Department of Transportation said Monday it will accept public comments through Sept. 22 on safety authorizations of Mexican carriers to operate in the United States beyond a 25-mile border zone...  In a Federal Register notice published Monday, DOT also said Mexican carrier Grupo Behr de Baha California has passed a safety audit and has obtained a DOT number for operating in the United States...  DOT’s notice Monday said for Mexico-based carriers to obtain a PASA, or pre-authorization safety audit, FMCSA must verify:

• A controlled substances and alcohol-testing program;
• Compliance with hours-of-service rules;
• The ability to obtain financial responsibility;
• Records of periodic vehicle inspections; and
• Qualifications of each driver.

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May 20, 2011

MEXICAN'S TRUCKS * USA - OOIDA challenges regulatory inequities built into cross-border trucking proposal

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association challenged the DOT’s legal authority to give Mexican motor carriers a free pass from some U.S. regs in comments filed last week

Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Jami Jones -May 17, 2011:  ...   On May 13, OOIDA submitted its official comments to the docket on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s...  The Association points out that the only way the DOT can excuse compliance with the regulations is to grant a waiver – something that is not required under NAFTA...  The DOT’s cross-border plan states that the Mexican LF (CDL), Mexican driver medical qualification standards and Mexican drug testing procedures will be accepted in place of compliance with U.S. standards...   The Association’s comments state that based on a Supreme Court decision, the agency doesn’t have the authority to depart from the requirement that all motor carriers demonstrate they are willing and able to comply with U.S. laws and regulations...  The comments also reminded the DOT of a 2001 NAFTA Tribunal decision that ultimately ruled against the U.S. for refusing to consider authority applications from Mexican motor carriers, but did not matter-of-factly state that the border must be opened...  That decision, OOIDA contends, allows the DOT latitude in implementing additional procedures, as long as it is done in good faith...  Following the close of the comment period, the DOT initially anticipated that it would respond to comments within 30 days and release a final plan 60 days after that, or sometime in mid-August...  (Photo courtesy of Chiapas state government: X-ray images show many of the immigrants standing in a trailer, and authorities say the images tipped off law enforcement officers)


* Mexico - Police find hundreds of migrants in US


Chiapas,Mexico -The Guardian (UK) -18 May 2011: -- Police in Mexico's southern Chiapas state found 513 migrants on Tuesday inside in cramped conditions in two trailer trucks bound for the United States. Police discovered the migrants while using X-ray equipment on the trucks at a checkpoint... Some of the immigrants were suffering from dehydration after travelling for hours clinging to cargo ropes strung inside the containers to keep them upright and to allow more migrants to be more crammed in on the floor... The trucks had air holes punched in the tops of the containers, but migrants interviewed at the state prosecutors' office said they lacked air and water. The trucks were bound for the central city of Puebla, where the migrants said they had been told they would be loaded onto a second set of vehicles for the trip to the US border...

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May 8, 2011

MEXICANS TRUCKS * USA - Lawmakers lash back at cross-border plan

Any Mexican carrier participating in the program would have to meet a number of criteria, including its vehicles meeting all U.S. safety and emissions standards, and drivers passing an English proficiency exam

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Jami Jones -May 6 2011: -- Questions of legal authority, irresponsible spending and national security plagued the newly unveiled plan to open the border to long-haul trucks, even as the DOT pushed forward and officially published the plan...  The Department of Transportation released a plan on April 8, which published in the Federal Register on April 13. The 30-day comment period is set to end on Friday, May 13...  The Obama administration’s plan to phase in a cross-border program that would result in permanent operating authority drew immediate fire from one U.S. lawmaker...  Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, that requests “written justification of how DOT’s planned program complies with the requirements for pilot programs” ...  (Image from Mexico Trucker: Nuevo Laredo Transito inspect drayage rig for compliance with OS/OW regulations on Hwy 2 south of Commercial Bridge III)


* Dump Mexican trucking proposal: Lawmakers

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -May 5, 2011: -- A group of 44 lawmakers delivered a signed letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, yesterday demanding that the Obama Administration abandon plans to restart a controversial cross-border trucking program for Mexican motor carriers... “The cross-border trucking program clearly puts foreign interests above our own,” said U.S. Rep. Hunter (R-CA), in a press release. “It’s bad for the American economy. It’s bad for American truckers and the entire commercial trucking industry. And it’s bad for border security. Simply put, the cross-border trucking program is a straight handout to Mexico at the expense of American jobs, taxpayer dollars and security” ...The El Paso Intelligence Center reports that commercial vehicles are widely used by Mexican drug trafficking organizations... (Photo from tti.tamu.edu: Mexican Diesel Trucks. Alamo Area Council)

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Apr 18, 2011

EPA funds * USA - Retrofits for Mexican-owned trucks through Arizona

"... He can’t imagine the federal government spending U.S. tax money to help businesses that compete with his trucking operation..."

Nogales,AZ,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Charlie Morasch -14 April 2011: -- Sonny Brown has trucked for 30 years. The Tennessee resident spent years developing his niche hauling cars and other freight on his drop deck trailer, which he spent three years and $50,000 building... Brown was outraged when he learned this week that federal taxes paid by U.S. citizens and businesses are being doled out to many Mexican-owned trucking companies along the Nogales, AZ, border... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is funding emission retrofits for many Mexican-owned trucks through the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. As of this week, the program had funded between 65 and 70 retrofits, which cost between $1,200 and $1,500 per unit... Mark Shaffer, a spokesman with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, told Land Line Magazine that regardless of the politics in ongoing cross-border trucking debates, U.S. residents in Nogales, AZ, and in neighboring Nogales, Mexico, are bearing the brunt of old trucks that frequently must idle... For his part, Brown said he can’t imagine the federal government spending U.S. tax money to help businesses that compete with his trucking operation...   (Photo from roadtraffic-technology: Border crossing at Nogales, Arizona)

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Apr 10, 2011

MEXICANS TRUCKS * USA - DOT forges ahead with cross-border plan


(Video from YouTube, by perrintrucking - 7 April 2010: Circulating amidst Tamaulipas and Chihuahua/MEX)
Washington,DC,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Jami Jones -April 8, 2011:  – Despite unified calls from the trucking industry, members of Congress, safety groups and highway users, the Obama administration revealed its plan on Friday afternoon to forge ahead with its plan to open the border to long-haul trucks from Mexico...   The plan is to implement a three-stage program...   In the first stage of the program, each truck participating in the program will be inspected each time it enters the US... However, the plan is for licenses to be checked only 50 percent of the time...  The plan also confirms that trucks from Mexico will be equipped with GPS or electronic on-board recorders – paid for by the Department of Transportation...  Spencer pointed out that U.S. trucking companies and truck drivers must contend with ever-increasing safety, homeland security and environmental regulations that dramatically affect their costs of operation as well as their ability to make a living at their chosen profession. Mexico does not have a regulatory system for its trucking industry and drivers that is even remotely equivalent to the one in the U.S. ...  


* DC - US to pay up to $2.5M for Mexican truck data recorders. Devices will ensure compliance with safety regulations

(Video from YouTube, by Roadchubbs - 14 Dec 2007: Trucking through Arizona and New Mexico)
Washington,DC,USA -The Arizona Daily Star -9 April 2011: -- The United States will pay as much as $2.5 million from the federal Highway Trust Fund to equip Mexican trucks with electronic data recorders to ensure safety compliance, according to a Transportation Department fact sheet...  The data recorders are necessary to ensure Mexican companies are complying with safety regulations, the department said in a memorandum emailed to industry groups Friday. The U.S. funding will stop when the three-year pilot program for cross-border truck traffic ends, the department said...  The Highway Trust Fund, the main source of money for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, is financed through U.S. fuel taxes...  In addition to data recorders tracking Mexican drivers' hours of service, the trucks will have global positioning systems, according to the Federal Register notice...  The devices will ensure that Mexican carriers don't violate cabotage laws, which forbid foreign trucks from making deliveries between U.S. cities, the American Trucking Associations said in a statement...  Continuation of cross-border truck traffic will depend on "reciprocity" from Mexico, or allowing U.S. carriers south of the border, the Transportation Department said...


* FMCSA Releases Mexican Trucking Plan. Proposal would create new three-year cross-border trucking pilot project

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by William B. Cassidy -Apr 11, 2011: -- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released plans Friday for a new pilot trucking project with Mexico "to test and demonstrate" the ability of Mexican truckers to operate safely within the U.S. beyond the border commercial zone... Mexican carriers would proceed through a series of three stages during the program and could obtain permanent U.S. operating authority within 18 months. Carriers that participated in the previous pilot project would get credit for that time... Mexico would have to grant U.S. truckers reciprocal rights south of the border before the program could be launched. Currently, four of the 10 U.S. motor carriers that participated in the last pilot project still operate in Mexico, the FMCSA said... The Department of Transportation said it "does not propose to exempt or relieve Mexico-domiciled motor carriers from any safety regulation." Mexican carriers would have to pass DOT safety audits and comply with all U.S. laws and regulations...

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Mar 18, 2011

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * USA - House committee members concerned about border violence

In the past two weeks, the White House has moved closer to opening the U.S.-Mexico border to long-haul trucks from Mexico

Washington,DC,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Charlie Morasch -15 March 2011: -- Multiple members of a congressional subcommittee voiced serious concerns Tuesday regarding the violent drug wars along the border, even as the White House prepares to open the U.S. border to long haul Mexican trucks...  During Tuesday’s hearing in DC, the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security was scheduled to examine the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to secure the border. Several congressional representatives strongly communicated their concerns about growing violence from Mexico’s drug wars spilling into the United States... 

* U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-MI, subcommittee chairman, noted the rapid changes occurring at the nation’s southern border  "… it does seem to be almost a war zone situation in some areas.”

* Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-TX, said. “Violence is out of control.”

* U.S. Rep. Michael McCall, R-TX, said he was concerned about estimates that the border security program won’t fully be in place until at least 2021. “If I have to go home and tell my constituents that the border won’t be secure until 2026, they’re not going to accept that – and I don’t think they should accept that...”

* U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-TX, worried about American guardsmen and border patrol workers:  “...  whether they are secure enough to work in that environment and be able to protect themselves with proper armaments.”
(Photo from demlab.wordpress: Mexico's war on drugs)

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Jan 26, 2011

Mexican Trucks * USA - Can not meet EPA standards

..."in part because low sulfur diesel fuel is not available in Mexico"

Mexico City,DF,MEX -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -January 24, 2011: -- While the U.S. has offered up a preliminary document that it says will satisfy its requirements under NAFTA to allow Mexican trucks to operate inside the borders of this country, the head of Mexico’s largest trucking association says not so fast... Speaking to reporters after meeting with Mexico’s transportation secretary, Juan Carlos Muñoz, president of National Chamber of Motor Transport of Freight, said that Mexican trucks would be unable to meet EPA environmental standards ... Oil companies in Mexico “do not have sufficient capacity to supply the diesel suitable for these new technologies,” Muñoz said... That, if true, should alleviate fears of many in this country and could be a major sticking point as U.S. and Mexican negotiators debate the fine points of any new program... (Photo from aftermathnews.files.wordpress: mexican trucks at border in Nogales,MEX )

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Jan 19, 2011

Mexican Truck Program * Usa - DOT Proposes Revised One

A Mexican official said that while Mexico welcomed the proposal, it was " just an initiative"  and would not yet prompt the country to lift the tariffs

Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics (USA) & TI (UK) -7 Jan 2011: -- The Obama administration released an outline of what the resumption of a cross-border trucking program with Mexico would look like, in an effort to stem the ongoing dispute that has led to Mexico putting tariffs on some U.S. goods... In an effort to reopen the border, Mexico has imposed tariffs on dozens of goods accounting for billions of dollars of trade between the two countries... The released  plan's principles are similiar to the program established by the Bush administration but was shuttered by Congress in 2009...   Among the items included in the document are:

* Mexican carriers will apply for long-haul operations. Passenger and hazardous materials carriers will not be included.
* All applicants will be vetted by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
* Mexican carriers will be required to pass an English language proficiency and US traffic laws knowledge tests
* Review of safety management programs, driving records and proof of insurance
* Use of electronic monitoring to monitor trucks, drivers and carriers.
* A federal advisory committee will be established, representing key stakeholders, to oversee the program.

Rod Nofziger, director of government affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told that the driver group “appreciated” DOT allowing for review and comment of its proposal, but said “they seem to be missing our primary objections,” which include potential safety issues of Mexican trucks...  Despite opponent's arguments against the plan, extending US trucking standards to Mexican truckers can potentially provide opportunities for US truckers... The plan, which needs congressional approval, is a starting point that will be used in negotiations with Mexico... (Photo: Border, USA/Mexico, crossing)

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Oct 17, 2010

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * USA - Mexican Official Insists on Permanent Truck Program

Mexico “not willing to take” another pilot program, says senior diplomat


(Video from YouTube, by ReutersVideo - 9 Feb 2010: US Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Reuters that Congress could be moving closer to allowing Mexican trucks back in the US. Deborah Lutterbeck reports)

Washington,DC,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by R.G. Edmonson -Oct 15, 2010: -- Mexico will no longer accept a U.S. pilot program as a way of allowing Mexican trucks to operate in the U.S., a senior Mexican diplomat said Friday... “If you put in place a demonstration project similar to what we had, it can begin, but it can be defunded at any time,” said Jose Luis Paz Vega, the head of the trade and North American Free Trade Agreement office at the Mexican embassy in Washington. “Mexico is not willing to take that any more. We need a program that is permanent, that has certainty, and complies with NAFTA. And we’re not willing to accept anything less than that” ... Paz noted that U.S. manufacturers benefit from Mexico’s exports since 35 percent of the exported goods contain components imported from the U.S... Paz said it takes three trucks to move goods from Mexico to the U.S.: one that goes to the U.S. border, a second that drays the van across the border, and a third to move goods to their destination He called it an inefficiency that was harming the North American economy... Paz said that the Obama administration appears ready to resolve the issue. “I think they are waiting until the right time to do it,” he said. “Unfortunately that time has not come now for 15 years” ...

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Aug 25, 2010

ANALYSIS * USA - Trucking Time Bomb: What To Do About Mexican Trucks?

Maybe the United States should be living up to its end of the bargain by agreeing to what is called for when it signed the NAFTA accord

New York,NY,USA -Gerson Lehrman Group, by John Schulz -August 20, 2010: ... If somebody were lying to you, even a good neighbor, eventually you would get irritated with that neighbor, right? Right now, that neighbor is the United States, and the one getting irritated is Mexico... Under terms of the 16-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexican- and Canadian-domiciled trucks were supposed to be allowed to operate in this country, at least on a limited basis... We've agreed to that as far as the Canadians are concerned. For the Mexicans, not so much... Bowing to political pressure, the Obama administration has pulled back from a pilot program that would have allowed 100 or so highly inspected Mexican trucking companies to operate in this country beyond the 25-mile "free trade zone" along our southern border... Because of this, the Mexican government is pushing back with a variety of tariffs as much as 25 percent on U.S. products, including pork, cheese, ketchup, corn and fruits. In March 2009, the Mexican government began the increased tariffs of as much as 45 percent on such products as vegetables, wine, juices, sunglasses and toothpaste... The trucking industry can handle that level of competition. After all, there are some 7,000 U.S. trucking fleets registered at the Department of Transportation. A hundred or so more Mexican fleets hardly will make much of a difference... What this is all about is not competition, but rather politics... (Photo from cache3.asset-cache: US Department of Transportation's trucks control, at mexican border)

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Aug 17, 2010

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * Mexico - To Expand Tariffs in Unresolved Cross-Border Trucking Dispute with U.S.

Mexico City,DF,MEX -Transport Topics -17 Aug 2010: -- The Mexican government plans to expand its list of U.S. goods targeted for higher tariffs, as part of its retaliation for the U.S. government’s refusal to reopen the border to long-haul cross-border trucking... “The government of Mexico has renewed the list of U.S. goods subject to increased tariffs,” according to a statement posted on the embassy’s website. “The revised list will involve 99 U.S. products with a similar total export value to Mexico as the previous list”... The Mexican government "has yet to receive a formal proposal for resolution of this dispute and an unequivocal signal that the U.S. government is working to eliminate the barriers that Mexican long haul carriers face to access the U.S. market,” the statement said... The announcement did not specify which new products would be on the list... (Photo from discovery: Mexican Trucks)



* USA - Mexico Tariffs To Affect US Pork, Oranges, Pistachios

Washington,DC,USA -Dow Jones,by Josh Mitchell & Paul Kiernan -17 August 2010: -- Mexico said Monday it would impose tariffs on an expanded array of American products, from pork to pistachios, escalating a trade dispute over U.S. rules that effectively ban Mexican truckers from operating north of the border... Mexico's move to add 26 products to its tariff list while removing others, bringing the total to 99 U.S. products on the list, was designed to increase pressure on the Obama administration to resolve the long-running spat... Mexico didn't release details on the new tariffs, though a Mexican government official said the duties would be "modest." The duty on pork is expected to be 5%... But by affecting such products as pork, apples and California oranges, Mexico appeared to be trying to engage powerful lobbies--and influential lawmakers from their states--to force a resolution...


* USA - Trucking industry stakeholders react to Mexico's decision to increase tariff list

Washington,DC,USA -The Trucker, by LYNDON FINNEY -17 Aug 2010: -- Trucking industry stakeholders on Tuesday continued to weigh in on Mexico's announcement Monday that it would renew the list of U.S. goods subject to increased tariffs, adding that the list would involve 99 U.S. products with similar total export value to Mexico as the previous list... The Mexican government made its decision in the wake of no solution to the cross-border trucking program killed by Congress in March 2009 and thus what Mexico perceives as a lack of full compliance by the U.S. with the North American Free Trade Agreement... The original tariffs were estimated to cost U.S. growers $2.4 billion annually... Tuesday, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Executive Vice President Todd Spencer, called on the Obama administration to stand up to what he called Mexico’s bullying tariff tactics and start fighting for the livelihoods of Americans... Trucking companies in the United States are required to comply with ever-increasing safety regulations that significantly increase their costs of operations, Spencer noted, adding that Mexico did not have a similar regulatory regimen and therefore its companies do not contend with the corresponding costs that encumber U.S. counterparts... (Photo from JOC: Border cross: USA / Mex)

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Jul 10, 2010

MEXICANS TRUCKS * Mexico: Seeks to End Cross-Border Trucking Dispute

Without progress on cross-border trucking, punitive tariffs could be expanded

City of Mexico,MEX,USA -The Wall Street Journal/The Journal of Commerce Online (USA), by William B. Cassidy -Jul 9, 2010: -- Mexico may expand the list of U.S. products facing billions of dollars in punitive tariffs unless the Obama administration proposes a cross-border trucking program... A Mexican government official told Thursday that Mexico wants more than the revival of the pilot project killed by Congress last year... “If we don’t see a concrete proposal from the U.S. in the next few weeks, Mexico will exercise its legal rights,” the unnamed official told the financial newspaper. Those rights, the official said, include expanding the retaliatory tariffs... Mexico imposed punitive tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. goods when Congress and the White House shut down a Bush-era test of cross-border trucking. The tariffs ranged from 10 percent to 45 percent and affected 90 products... Mexico is the second-largest export market for the U.S., receiving 12 percent of U.S. exports in 2009. Almost half of Mexico’s imports are sourced from the U.S.... The Obama administration said in March 2009 it would replace the original pilot project with a new cross-border program, but many Democrats oppose the idea... A group of 78 members of the House of Representatives, mostly Democrats, in April called for the Mexican trucking provision to be stripped from NAFTA... (Images from huffingtonpost: An already-jammed US/Mexico border crossing)

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May 21, 2010

MEXICAN TRUCKS * USA - President Calderon Urges End to Trucking Dispute

Washington,DC,USA -Bloomberg /Transport Topics -19 May 2010: -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon, visiting Washington this week, said that Mexico and the United States must work toward resolving the dispute between the two nations over allowing Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways... Calderon, speaking to reporters after meeting with President Obama, said a resolution that will allow cross-border trucking is vital to ensuring trade and commerce between the two countries... He said the two countries will “continue to work to solve this quickly,” Bloomberg reported. About 80% of Mexican exports go to the United States... (Photo from mexicotrucker: Reynosa. Mexican trucks traveling north on Mexico 85 from Monterrey into Nuevo Laredo)

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May 18, 2010

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...

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Mar 17, 2010

MEXICANS' TRUCKS DEBATE * Mexico - New Tariffs

The Mexican government is about to shift its punitive tariffs to a new list of goods

Mexico City,DF,MEX -Transport Topics -15 March 2010: -- The ongoing refusal of the U.S. government to honor the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement is about to claim some new, and as yet unknown, victims... Sources tell Transport Topics that the Mexican government is about to shift its punitive tariffs to a new list of goods as the first anniversary of the penalties is reached... The tariffs make U.S. goods more expensive, and much of the business was shifted to Canadian suppliers. That meant the U.S. fleets that formerly handled the freight also lost out... The Mexicans moved after the United States again failed to live up to the terms of NAFTA, which was signed during the Clinton administration and called for the border to be opened to trucking companies from Canada, the United States and Mexico...

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Mar 11, 2010

MEXICANS' TRUCKS * Mexico Calls For U.S. to Resolve Cross-Border Trucking

Mexico City,DF,MEX -CNN/TruckingInfo (USA) -11 March 2010: -- In addition to U.S. lawmakers and stakeholders, Mexico has now urged the U.S. to come up with a plan to end the ban on cross-border trucking, according to reports by CNN... In statements released Tuesday, Mexico called on the U.S. to develop a resolution to the problem, which Mexico says is in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement... Mainly legislative and legal tactics of U.S. labor, owner-operator and citizen advocacy groups who fear loss of U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers and argue that Mexican trucks will not be safe, the border isn't opened to state-traffic ... According to CNN, Mexico recognizes the fact that the U.S. does want to resolve the issue, but it wants to see more movement...


* USA - Border dispute continues to hurt U.S. trucking interests

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -March 11, 2010: ... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had a conference call the other day to highlight the effect the ban on trucks crossing the border has had in this country... The Chamber is claiming that more than $1.5 billion of manufactured products and $900 million in U.S. agricultural products, not to mention 25,000 jobs, have been impacted by 90 tariffs Mexico placed on U.S. goods in the past year. Not to mention the real crux of the problem: the violation of international law by the U.S... Whether you agree or not with the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), one result of that was to open the borders. When it comes to trucking, the U.S.-Mexican border has never been truly open. Pressured by the Teamsters and other groups who claim that Mexican trucks are not safe to be on U.S. roadways... It should be noted that we have no such problem with our friends to the north. Canadian carriers can drive into the U.S., make deliveries and continue back to Canada. What they can’t do is drive to New York to make a delivery and then to Chicago for a pickup... That system seems to be working !!!...

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