US and Mexico Trucking Agreement Signed – and Spark Debate!

It appears that a years-long dispute over allowing commercial trucks from Mexico to use U.S. highways may be nearing an end. Or is there still an unresolved source of dispute?

The issue goes back to 1994 when NAFTA encouraged Mexican truckers to have free access to use American highways to deliver goods. Years later the Bush administration ran a pilot cross-border trucking program under provisions made in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Then early in 2009, the Obama administration suspended the program, and sparked Mexico to set retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods for not allowing its trucks access to U.S. roadways. Currently, most Mexican-domiciled trucks are only allowed to operate within a 25-50 mile commercialized zone of the border.

The United States and Mexico signed a cross-border trucking agreement under which the U.S. will open its roads to Mexican trucks, and in return Mexico will suspend about $2 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods. This new agreement would end the trucking-related NAFTA disputes between the two countries. The two countries said they would issue their first trucking permits in August.

However, while the government and business leaders favor the trucking policy, the same is not true of the U.S. trucking industry and their unions. They claim that Mexican trucks will not meet the same safety standards as American trucks and would exacerbate our already staggering unemployment rate. Reaction to the agreement was swift, and negative, from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which said in press release that independent truckers were “fuming” about the pact.

But the Department of Transportation (DOT) said the agreement would ensure safety, as Mexican trucks will be required to comply with U.S. safety standards and that they must have electronic monitoring systems to track hours-of-service compliance and that they would pay for the electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs). The decision to pay for these EOBRs with U.S. funds brought on even more criticism from many in the U.S. trucking industry.

Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington expressed hope that the agreement would be a successful bridge between the two nations, but said there will be more work in the future to preserve real trade.