U.S.-Mexico Truck Freeze, Melting

After a two-year dispute that has resulted in millions in lost profits, missed market opportunities, and escalating exasperation between the two countries, the ice may have finally begun to break.

Secretary Ray LaHood showed to Congress what was termed a "concept document" that would sooner or later permit qualified Mexican truckers to operate in U.S. commerce beyond a 25-mile commercial zone along the southern border.

The document by the Department of Transportation (DOT) was produced as nothing more than a "starting point" for agreement with Mexico targeted at developing a cross-border access program all stakeholders could agree with. DOT will make the details public, if and when an agreement is reached, and give interested parties 30 days to file comments. Legislative body mus pass a bill as well, and the deal is contrary to all reasonable expectations to go down without a fight both at DOT and on Capitol Hill.

The release of the document comes approximately two years after President Barack Obama signed an omnibus spending bill that aborted funding for a 2007 pilot program that gave Mexican truckers and drivers restricted access to U.S. markets. The Teamsters union and independent truck drivers – main supporters of the action - applauded the action as an integral step in keeping unsafe and unqualified Mexican truckers off U.S. highways. Detractors disputed that the administration's judgment breached a provision in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement that demanded the United States to give Mexican truckers full access to its highways by January 2000.

A bent out of shape Mexican government returned the compliment by imposing tariffs on 89 U.S. import products worth more than $2 billion a year. Mexican government enforced the tariffs utilizing a rotating "carousel" mechanism that allows it to remove some products from the list at the same time adding others. As an acknowledgment to the release of the DOT document, Mexico announced it would stop the "carousel" an cease from adding any more commodities to the list. But, the government said it would not lift the taxes until it ascertains more progress toward resolving the dispute.

The DOT document is patterned roughly after the 2007 pilot program. On the other hand, there are 3 major additions: All trucks mus be provided with electronic on-board recording devices to monitor compliance with appropriate driver hours-of-service regulations. Furthermore, U.S. regulators will review each driver's performance history in both countries before considering the driver fit to operate under U.S. standards. Lastly, U.S. officials will go over safety records under the guard of the Mexican government on each company as well as any U.S. operating history the company may have.

The changes show input from different stakeholders, including Mexican government, according to DOT.

Feedback to the document was quick, and generally, has a predictable tone. James P. Hoffa , Teamster President, was "deeply disappointed" in the proposal, cautioning it would put the U.S. public motorist in danger and subject the U.S. southern border to bolstered drug trafficking from Mexican cartels.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has somewhat the same idea as the Teamsters and warns the proposal would put U.S. citizens at risk on the roads and endanger U.S. driver jobs at a time of intensified unemployment.

"Mexico has been bullying our government into allowing their trucking companies to have full access to highways across the U.S. while refusing to raise regulatory standards in its own trucking industry," said Todd Spencer, OOIDA's executive vice president. "Mexico's regulatory standards aren't even remotely equivalent to what we have in the U.S."

The move was hailed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Thomas J. Donohue, the chamber's president and CEO and former head of the American Trucking Associations, said "It's time that we complied with the promise we made to allow carefully inspected trucks to move across the border."

For the array of producers affected by the tariffs by the Mexican government, the bone of contention can't end soon enough. The U.S. Apple Association declared it was happy by the turn of events. Last August, the association's products were added to the tariff list. Like a number of of U.S. commodity producers, Mexico is being counted by the apple industry as its largest export market. In 2110 Mexico imported 11.5 million boxes of fresh U.S. apples worth $207 million. By value, that's more than one-quarter of total U.S. apple exports.