09/13/2007
Mexican group demands halt to trucking program
by Lisa J. Adams
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — The private organization representing the majority of the country’s freight haulers today demanded the government suspend a pilot cross-border trucking program because they said Mexican truckers are at a competitive disadvantage with their U.S. counterparts.
Tirso Martinez, president of the group known by its Spanish acronym Canacar, said the one-year pilot program, which went into effect last week, is destined to fail because Mexico’s Transportation Department has failed to resolve traffic bottlenecks for Mexican trucks trying to cross the U.S. border, and does not have the personnel to enforce a provision prohibiting U.S. truckers from carrying domestic Mexican cargo, among other issues.
Although Mexican cargo haulers have invested $2.2 billion in their industry and created 54,000 new jobs in the past year, "the Mexican government has not negotiated the conditions that will permit freight haulers to compete on equal terms with its counterparts in the United States," Martinez told a news conference.
"Therefore, we demand that the Transportation Department suspend the launch of this pilot program ... because it is not prepared to carry it out."
Martinez said Canacar was requesting a meeting with President Felipe Calderon to discuss its concerns and also would like to meet with state governors and lawmakers in an effort to "define concrete goals and specific timeframes to resolve both internal and external problems."
In addition to the news conference, the association today published in at least two daily newspapers an open letter to Calderon, Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez, and the national Congress spelling out its concerns.
The association’s protest comes two days after the U.S. Senate approved a proposal by Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota, to prohibit the U.S. Transportation Department from spending money on the pilot program, which ostensibly would be followed by a permanent program mandated by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Dorgan’s proposal is part of a $106 billion transportation and housing spending bill that the Senate plans to vote on soon. The House of Representatives approved a similar provision to Dorgan’s in July as part of its version of the transportation spending bill.
The Teamsters, which have participated in protests against the program at the border in the U.S., argue that Mexican trucks are not safe for U.S. highways.
Both the U.S. and Mexican governments have argued that conditions are adequate to launch the pilot program, which they said would make Mexican cargo shipments more efficient both in terms of cost and time.
Until last week, Mexican trucks were restricted to a commercial border zone stretching about 25 miles inside the United States, except in Arizona, where it extended 75 miles.
From inside the zone, truckers transfer their goods to U.S. trucks, which then haul the cargo the rest of the way. U.S. truck drivers who have carved themselves a niche in that market have said they are worried about going out of business.
At least one Mexican truck has taken part in the pilot program thus far: A freightliner from northern Mexican company Transportes Olympic delivered a shipment of steel to North Carolina earlier this week.
Subject: Mexican Group Demands Halt to Trucking Program 
Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:45 pm
