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LaHood: Cross-border trucking announcement coming ‘soon’

In the days leading up to Mexico President Felipe Calderón’s visit to the U.S., the administration made it increasingly clear that another cross-border trucking program with Mexico would be announced “soon.”

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, just that at the tail end of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on May 6.

“President Obama’s team has worked very hard to put a program together,” LaHood told Murray. “We will be announcing it very soon.”

He went on to say that “President Obama’s intention is to restart this program.”

LaHood explained to Murray that because the provision calling for a cross-border trucking program with Mexico is in the North American Free Trade Agreement, the program “needs to be restarted.”

That has remained a cornerstone argument from backers of a long-haul, cross-border trucking program. However, not everyone is sold on the “we have to” argument that the U.S. has no choice but to open the border to long-haul trucks from Mexico.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, initiated a letter calling for the removal of the requirement from NAFTA. The letter gained significant bipartisan support with 77 lawmakers signing in support.

The letter, delivered to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in April, laid out the challenges facing the administration in launching another program.

Among the concerns are the security of the U.S., retaliatory tariffs and, most importantly, highway safety.

“We caution the administration that we firmly believe it would be difficult, if not impossible, to receive Congressional support for a cross-border trucking program that allows tens of thousands of Mexican trucks traveling across the lower 48 states,” the letter states.

The letter offers a “solution that has a greater likelihood of success.” That is to renegotiate NAFTA and eliminate the trucking requirement.

“This would remedy all the truck safety, homeland security and unemployment issues associated with this long-standing trade dispute,” the letter states.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association commended the efforts of DeFazio and the other lawmakers to put an end to the debate.

“Mexico’s regulatory standards and enforcement on trucks aren’t even remotely equivalent to what we have here. To open the border at this time is insanity from both an economic standpoint and safety,” said Todd Spencer, OOIDA executive vice president.

Spencer said DeFazio and the other lawmakers “should be applauded for this letter and their ongoing efforts to keep our highways safe and our nation secure.”

OOIDA Director of Government Affairs Rod Nofziger said the call to remove the NAFTA obligation remains a real alternative for members of Congress to consider if the Obama administration presses forward with a new program.

“It is imperative that lawmakers consider their obligation to any sort of program from all angles,” Nofziger said. “It’s absolutely urgent that truckers call their lawmakers and explain the serious ramifications that opening American roads to Mexico-based truckers will have on them and the entire U.S.

“Our lawmakers need to hear that simply throwing up their hands and opening the border is not an option.”

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