Report: DOT official says no resolution to Mexico truck issue likely this year

DOT official says he would be "surprised" if the Obama administration attempted to resolve the dispute over the cross border program this year.

The Trucker Staff

9/22/2009

WASHINGTON — A reported meeting last week between members of business coalition and a Department of Transportation official has apparently confirmed what many in the transportation industry had come to believe — healthcare and highways have trumped any plan to resume a cross-border trucking relationship with Mexico.

In a meeting Sept. 15 involving members of the Alliance to Keep U.S. Jobs and Roy Kienitz, the DOT’s undersecretary for policy, Kienitz signaled that a resolution was unlikely this year, sources told Inside U.S. Trade.

According to the published article, Kienitz said he would be "surprised" if the Obama administration attempted to resolve the dispute this year, sources said.

The publication reported what The Trucker and other news organizations have repeated been told by DOT spokespersons — any resolution now rests with the White House.

Kienitz reportedly said that Obama is aware of the issue, but has not signaled that the president is willing to make a potential resolution a priority, particularly amid the prolonged fight over health care reform, one source said.

Kienitz offered no timeline on when the Obama administration might move to resolve the issue, sources told Inside U.S. Trade.

In addition to the healthcare issue, the Obama administration is also involved in a battle with Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., champion of a proposed highway bill, over whether to extend the current funding bill or a short or long period of time.

When Congress ended the Cross Border Demonstration Project last March, the Obama administration quickly told Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to pull together a proposal for a replacement program.

LaHood did just that, meeting with Congressional leaders, trucking industry stakeholders and others to come up with a set of principles for a new program.

That set of principles was delivered to the White House four months ago.

The Alliance is pushing for an end to the retaliatory tariff increases Mexico imposed in March on 89 products, covering $2.4 billion in U.S. trade, but is not advocating a specific path toward that resolution, sources said.

The tariff increases were imposed after Congress stopped the pilot program for Mexican truck access to the U.S. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico is allowed to impose tariffs that have "equivalent effect" to the lost market access for trucks it gained under the NAFTA.

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.

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