Mexico to Press Obama on Trucking Issue
Mexico’s president will urge President Obama at their meeting in Mexico this week to allow Mexican trucks to deliver goods inside the United States, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Obama travels to Mexico Thursday to meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and Calderon plans will ask Obama to allow Mexican trucks to operate across the border, Mexico’s deputy transportation minister told Bloomberg in an interview.
U.S. lawmakers ended a pilot program last month that had allowed some trucks to operate in the United States beyond a border zone, after which Mexico retaliated by imposing $2.4 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods.
Mexico will seek more access for its trucks because the Obama administration has shown a willingness to work to resolve the issue, the minister, Humberto Trevino, told Bloomberg.
Last week, a Mexican trucking group sought damages from the United States for violating terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (Click here for subscriber-content story.)
The cross-border trucking program came about as a result of a 2007 pilot project that let about 100 Mexican trucking firms bring cargo into the U.S., although the program was opposed by some American lawmakers and labor and safety groups.
Click here for this week’s editorial, “The Growing Mexican Morass.”
