Comments Vary on U.S.-Mexico Cross-Border Trucking Program

Public comments on a proposal to soon allow Mexican trucks on U.S. highways were largely divided among those who urgently want retaliatory Mexican tariffs ended and those who fear it would leave U.S. roads less safe and steal jobs from Americans.

By the time the comment period closed Friday, there were roughly 1,500 comments filed on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposal to allow Mexican trucks on U.S. highways.

Even impassioned trucking industry commenters — from veteran truck drivers to large trade organizations and Teamsters’ union officials — were sharply divided on the wisdom of permitting long-haul Mexican trucks to carry freight beyond the 25-mile free trade border zone.

The pilot program would fulfill a long-delayed requirement of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. The Mexican government earlier this year suspended its practice of placing rotating punitive, retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods after the United States said it would reopen the cross-border trucking program, which the Obama administration suspended in 2009.

From soup to nuts and apples to table grapes, trade associations for myriad U.S. food products were unanimous in their support of the pilot project, primarily to reopen U.S. export markets that have been battered by Mexican government retaliatory tariffs of up to 20% for the past two years.

Even members of Congress weighed in on FMCSA’s proposal, dishing out implied threats to close down the new three-year experiment like they did in 2009.