Court Dismisses Teamsters’ Suit Over Mexican Trucks

A federal appeals court Monday dismissed a lawsuit by the Teamsters union and other groups who had challenged a cross-border trucking program with Mexico, saying the suit was moot because the Obama administration and Congress ended the program.

The San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made the ruling, in which it said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration terminated the program that had allowed some Mexican carriers access to U.S. roads beyond a designated border zone.

The court wrote that while the case was pending, Congress and the Obama administration passed a law that ended the program, and that “any new pilot program . . . would likely present different questions” related to the groups’ concerns over safety and other issues.

President Obama last week met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City, saying he was hopeful the two could come to an acceptable resolution of the cross-border issue. (Click here for related subscriber-content story.)

Mexico retaliated with tariffs on U.S. goods after the program was ended. Besides the Teamsters, petitioners in the suit included Public Citizen and the Sierra Club.

Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in a statement Monday expressed disappointment over the ruling but said it was hopeful that Congress “will continue to place a high priority on the safety and well-being of the American public.”

The group contends the program “had extended illegal, de facto exemptions to safety laws while allowing Mexico-based trucking companies and truck drivers to operate on highways throughout the United States.”

The Obama administration and Congress have reportedly been working to find ways to revive the program that would be acceptable to all parties under the North American Free Trade Agreement.