U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges adoption of cross-border pilot program

U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges adoption of cross-border pilot program The U.S. Chamber of Congress is championing a recently inaugurated federal pilot project allowing trucks to operate across the U.S.-Mexico border.
   The Chamber urged the Senate to uphold the project as an important step to enhance competitiveness, reduce pollution and promote economic growth. The comments came in written testimony Thursday to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.
   According to the Chamber, the current cross-border dispute over implementing North America Free Trade Agreement regulations has threatened the country's relationship with Mexico. The current system, said the Chamber, is 'archaic and convoluted.' A shipment traveling between the two countries requires at least three trucks and three drivers — a U.S. carrier, a Mexican carrier, and an intermediary between the two.
   'The fraught logistics of the existing system often compel trucks to return home with empty trailers or with no trailer at all,' the Chamber letter said. 'Our border infrastructure is seriously overburdened, and the entire system is quickly becoming a real brake on further growth in trade.'
   Under NAFTA trade with Mexico has nearly quadrupled, from $81 billion in 1993 to $332 billion in 2006, the Chamber said. Trucking is vital to this trade partnership because it moves more than 80 percent of the value of U.S. trade with Mexico.