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Mexican truckers are suing the United States for $6 billion over Washington's refusal to allow Mexican haulers onto its roads as required under the NAFTA trade pact, a trucking association said on Monday.camiones01 0 J3tbK 18311About 4,500 trucking companies represented by Mexico's National Cargo Transportation Association (Canacar) are involved in the lawsuit, according to Canacar.
The United States agreed under NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada -- to let Mexican trucks use its highways beginning in 1995.
But Mexican firms have remained confined to a narrow border area amid strong opposition from U.S. labor unions and consumer groups that say Mexican truck safety standards are lax.
Mexico slapped punitive tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. exports in March after the U.S. Congress ended a 2007 program that opened up American highways to some Mexican long-haul trucks.
-Reuters
The dispute has raised fears of a trade war but Mexico has said it plans no further sanctions and will seek a negotiated solution to the impasse. Total trade between the United States and Mexico was $368 billion in 2008 alone.
The issue of allowing Mexican trucks into the United States has been a sore point between the two nations for years. Angry American truckers, environmentalists and politicians have continuously sounded alarms about the potential dangers of allowing Mexican tractor-trailers onto U.S. interstate highways.
Teamsters union members have waged angry protests at the border and on Capitol Hill, waving signs saying “NAFTA Kills” and “Unsafe Mexican Trucks.”
The opposition also claims the verification department of NAFTA hasn’t shown how it will ensure thorough background checks and drug testing, enforce limits on driving time, or prohibit Mexican trucks from moving goods between U.S. states.
“We are the same as they are. They think that we drink beer, use drugs and drive without sleeping, but this is not true,”- Luis Gonzalez, a trucker based in Monterrey, Mexico
A NAFTA tribunal ruled in 2001 the United States had violated the treaty by restricting Mexican trucks to a narrow stretch along its border but Mexico opted not to impose sanctions at the time.
Opening the highways has long been a goal of both the United States and Mexico. Promoters say it will continue to create desperatly needed new business opportunities on both sides of the border and make international trade more efficient. Trucks were supposed to begin rolling both ways in 2000 under the North American Free Trade Agreement, but interest groups in the U.S. have blocked it, with exception to a short lived, extremly restricted, now cancelled pilot program, for 15 years. Meanwhile, Canadian truckers face no such restrictions.
To create a trade war is neither in Mexico's plans, nor best interests. We are only asking for what was offered and guarenteed under the NAFTA agreement. Guidelines and regulations of trucks and drivers are to be expected and have and would continue to be respected. I think, when all is said, one has to admit, Mexico's been extremly patient, but the time has come; what's fair is fair, and the current NAFTA trucking agreement is anything but.
