Congress lacks ‘appetite’ for opening border fully to Mexican trucks, former FMCSA chief says

Given the current economic climate of high unemployment, former FMCSA head John Hill said he didn’t think there was much appetite in Congress to agree to a complete opening of the U.S. border to Mexican trucks.

By Lyndon Finney
The Trucker Staff

4/15/2009

GREENWOOD, Ind. — The Bush administration official charged with leading the Cross Border Demonstration Project said the current infrastructure environment does not encourage long runs by Mexican or U.S. trucks into each other’s countries.

“The manufacturing and warehousing facilities are in close proximity to the border.  Therefore, there is little incentive to invest in long-haul operations until the cost of loading and unloading products in those commercial zones can be off-set with the long-haul runs,” John Hill, the former administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Tuesday.

Hill made his remarks in the wake of news reports that Mexican President Felipe Calderon will ask President Barack Obama this week to let Mexico trucks further into the U.S. when Obama visits Mexico Thursday and Friday.

In fact, Mexico’s Deputy Transportation Minister Humberto Trevino told Bloomberg.com that “We don’t simply want to re-establish the pilot project we had, but to have a project with a lot more reach.”

Hill said that carriers simply are not going to “make that kind of investment and change in business operations with shippers, brokers and future business partners until they have some assurance that they will not have the program terminated — just as Congress did in its latest action to stop the pilot program.”

Given the current economic climate of high unemployment, Hill said he didn’t think there was much appetite in Congress to agree to a complete opening of the U.S. border to Mexican trucks.

“However, it is time for the Congress to stop allowing the voices of special interests to trump the United States’ international trade agreements,” Hill said.

Other news reports this week said that the Department of Transportation had delivered on its promise to send a set of principles for a new Mexico trucking program to the White House before Obama leaves for Mexico Thursday.

Sources have told The Trucker that any final decision on a new program will likely come directly from Congress. Lawmakers included language ending the program in the FY 2009 omnibus spending bill the president signed last month.

After the program ended, Mexico slapped tariffs on some 90 U.S. exports to the tune of some $2.4 billion, a figure publicized by CANACAR, the Mexican trucking association.

Hill took exception with CANACAR’s protests over the end of the pilot program.

“I don’t think CANACAR’s claim of millions of dollars lost is supportable,” Hill said. “If that were accurate, many more Mexican trucking companies would have been lining up for the cross-border demonstration program.”

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff may be reached to comment at editor@thetrucker.com.