Mexico ratchets up trade war over cross-border trucking   

Once again, a critical issue in our industry is making headlines in the mainstream press. Last week Mexico expanded its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products in protest of the on-going failure of the U.S. to honor our NAFTA commitments by allowing cross-border trucking with Mexico. There is an excellent editorial in the Wall Street Journal's August 21 issue that can be read on-line by subscribers at WSJ Teamster Tariffs. The editorial is appropriately titled "The Teamster Tariff" in reference to the pressure that the union has successfully applied to thus far stop cross-border trucking. Mexico removed 16 items from the tariff list but added 26 new items, bringing the total list to 99 agricultural and industrial products affecting about $2.5 billion in trade with 43 states. Referring to truck safety concerns, Economy Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said "The argument was that the trucks did not comply with their safety rules, despite the fact that during the pilot program there were more than 46,000 crossings without any significant incidents." Mexico is targeting products that can easily be imported from other trading partners and targeting states where Senators and Representatives oppose cross-border trucking.