Lawmakers seek jump for stalled Mexican truck dispute

Lawmakers seek jump for stalled Mexican truck dispute    One year after Congress cut off funds for a cross border trucking program with Mexico the Obama administration has still not followed through on its promise to make modifications that would allow the initiative to resume and end a bilateral trade tiff.
   Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, speaking to reporters following an address to state transportation leaders, would only say, 'We're tweaking our proposal. We're working with the White House and sort of finalizing things.'

LaHood

   The inaction prompted 56 members of the House last week to sign a letter asking LaHood and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to resolve the matter and communicate the administration's principles or parameters for a proposed plan.
   LaHood said last spring that the administration was working quickly to restructure a pilot program that had allowed several dozen Mexican trucks to make deliveries in the interior of the United States. Congress terminated the program early in the year citing safety concerns with Mexican trucks and drivers on U.S. highways. After Congress killed the program, Mexico retaliated by slapping tariffs of 10 percent to 45 percent on 90 U.S. exports ranging from pears to shampoo, Christmas trees and cordless phones. The tariffs were estimated to cost U.S. businesses $2.6 billion per year in lost sales.
   Congress did not restore funding in the fiscal year 2010 consolidated appropriations bill.
   Under the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the U.S. agreed to allow Mexican trucks into the country within three years, but Congress has repeatedly blocked their entrance. Mexican trucks are only allowed to shuttle goods into a 20-mile border zone where they are transferred to other companies for long-haul transport throughout the United States.
   President Obama expressed his commitment to find a compromise during a meeting last August in Guadalajara with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
   'These tariffs have had a devastating impact on our local industries and area economies ' The current situation is unsustainable and untenable. Our constituencies need help immediately and we implore you to work quickly to implement a solution that ensures safety and normalizes trade between the U.S. and Mexico,' the lawmakers wrote.

Murray

   Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told LaHood Thursday at an Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the tariffs were hurting her state's agriculture industry. She said growers, processors and packing companies will move operations into Canada if the tariffs remain in place and put Americans out of work.
   'We are finalizing a plan,' LaHood responded. 'The reason it's taken so long is because there's a lot of different moving parts, including about five different cabinet officials, and every time we make a tweak or a change everybody has to sign-off on it. But we're very near a proposal that we think will meet all of the safety concerns that I heard when I talked to 25 members of Congress. We're close to talking to all of you about what we think our way of addressing the safety concerns that Congress brought to us.'
   In December, an alliance of more than 150 manufacturers, retailers, and farmers urged the government to quickly find a solution, saying 25,000 jobs are either threatened or have been lost as a result of Mexico's retaliatory tariffs. ' Eric Kulisch