A key part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has finally been fulfilled, with the crossing of the first Mexican truck bound for the interior of the United States.

 

As part of NAFTA, Mexico’s trucking companies were supposed to gain full access to American highways by January 2000. But opposition from U.S. labor unions and concerns over the ability of Mexican truckers to meet American safety standards postponed the implementation of this NAFTA provision. Canadian trucks have been allowed on U.S. roads since 1982.

 

The George W. Bush administration established a pilot program in 2007 that allowed a limited number of Mexican haulers onto U.S. roads near the border. But President Barack Obama canceled the project, which provoked retaliatory trade tariffs by Mexico against 99 U.S. products.

 

On Friday, the Mexican government dropped the tariffs as a tractor-trailer from Transportes Olympic trucking company carrying a large steel drilling structure was allowed to cross the border at Laredo and head towards the Dallas suburb of Garland.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Mexican Truck Is First in Delayed NAFTA Program (by Christopher Sherman, Associated Press)

Years After NAFTA, First Long-Haul Mexican Truck Enters U.S. (by Jim Forsyth, Baltimore Sun)

U.S. Shifts Gears on Mexico Trucking Deal (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)