House Members Urge the Renegotiation of NAFTA Trucking Provision

A bipartisan coalition of 77 House members sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood imploring them to renegotiate a section of the North American Free Trade Agreement that provides Mexican trucks with full access to U.S. roadways.

That provision of the trade agreement has sparked a bitter trade dispute between the U.S. and Mexico. NAFTA was supposed to allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. roadways by 1995, however, opposition led by safety advocates and organized labor managed to keep the borders closed to Mexican trucks, more-or-less. After a Mexican trucking company successfully sued the U.S. for its failure to meet its obligations under the agreement, the Bush administration instituted a pilot program that was later scuttled by Congress. In response, the Mexican government levied tariffs on some 89 U.S. products totaling $2.4 billion.

The pilot program gave access to up to 500 Mexican trucks to drive deeper into the United States than previously allowed under law, which posed a whole host of safety risks, according to the letter.

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