Mexico will not renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or any other aspect of its relationship with the United States via social media or the press, the Mexican government declared Aug. 27

The Surface Transportation Board will hold a special session to listen to CSX Corp. and railroad shippers discuss service disruptions since May that have ratcheted up the animosity between the sides in a public war of words.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and the region’s economic development leaders joined with company officials for a ribbon-cutting Aug. 23 at the 215,000-square-foot distribution center in Santa Teresa’s West Park.

The nationwide growth in demand for fresher foods has contributed to a boom in the refrigerated transportation sector. But tighter food-handling standards and emission regulations are limiting the load flexibility and utilization options that carriers may have had in the past, and at a steeper cost, too.

Hurricane Harvey strengthened as it headed toward landfall in Texas, forecast to become the worst storm to strike the region in more than a decade. The price of gasoline rallied as the storm threatened to wreak havoc on the heart of America’s energy sector.

Elected officials received a status update on an inland port and intermodal project on the Arkansas River at the Port of Van Buren.

Trade representatives from the United States, Canada and Mexico have begun talks aimed at resetting terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a process that is expected to take many months to conclude and which could have profound implications for freight carriers and the supply chain operations of companies in all three countries.

The Mississippi Senate Transportation Committee has two days of hearings scheduled for Aug. 24 and Aug. 25 for members to again hear about the poor condition of the state’s transportation system.

CSX Corp. CEO E. Hunter Harrison issued a stark rebuke of complaints about poor service, sending a scathing letter to a coalition of rail shippers, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and regulators at the Surface Transportation Board.