U.S., Mexico Set Cross-Border Transportation Working Group
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and his Mexican counterpart have agreed to form a working group to consider the next steps of the two countries’ cross-border trucking program.
LaHood and Mexican Secretary of Communications and Transportation Juan Molinar Horcasitas discussed a broad range of transportation issues of fundamental economic interest to both countries, the two said in an e-mailed statement late Monday.
Meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, the two agreed on the importance of cooperating in areas of mutual interest to ensure the safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the two countries’ transportation systems.
The officials said they recognized the “critical role of border region transportation infrastructure projects in sustaining a mutually important trade relationship” and committed to establishing processes to increase bilateral transportation cooperation.
Last month a group of 56 U.S. lawmakers urged the Obama administration to resolve the ongoing cross-border trucking dispute with Mexico they said has damaged bilateral trade.
Mexican trucks are allowed to operate in a zone of about 25 miles on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Under the Bush administration, the Department of Transportation began a pilot program in 2007 to allow some Mexican carriers free access to all U.S. roads.
The Obama administration suspended that program in March 2009 and a group of Mexican carriers last year sued the U.S. for $6 billion for violating provisions of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.
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