Supreme Court decision opens the door to Mexican trucks, again

Supreme Court decision opens the door to Mexican trucks, again    The U.S. Supreme Court Monday reversed a lower court ruling and said the Department of Transportation does not need to conduct an environmental impact study before implementing regulations to allow Mexican trucks to operate on U.S. highways.
      The decision in DOT v. Public Citizen is expected to further open trade between the United States and Mexico, which totaled $235 billion in 2003.
   Under the North American Free Trade Agreement signed in 1995, the United States and Mexico agreed to grant access to each other’s trucks. Currently Mexican trucks are restricted to operating in a narrow 20-mile commercial zone on both sides of the border. This leads to a cumbersome freight logistics in the border as long-haul trucks hand-off their trailer loads to designated local shuttle drivers who ferry goods back and forth across the border.
   The Clinton administration delayed implementing the NAFTA rule, claiming Mexican trucks did not meet American safety standards. Congress finally passed a bill that would allow cross-border traffic once the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration set up a truck inspection and driver registration regime. In 2001, President Bush said the program was in place and ordered the border be opened to all Mexican trucks. A coalition of groups, including Public Citizen, labor unions and the California Trucking Association, opposed the decision and successfully blocked it in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by claiming the FMCSA neglected to conduct an environmental impact study to see what effect Mexican trucks would have on air quality in the United States. Opponents argue that Mexican trucks are older and pollute more, but most long-haul companies use modern fleets, according to trucking industry officials.
   The Bush administration appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the ruling impedes the president’s ability to conduct foreign relations and would cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars in potential lost trade with Mexico.
   The Supreme Court overturned the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordering an environmental impact statement, saying the FMCSA did not have the authority to reverse a presidential ruling lifting the moratorium on Mexican trucks through the environmental review process.
   Business groups, including the American Trucking Associations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hailed the decision.
   “The decision to open our borders is long overdue,” Chamber President Thomas Donahue said in a statement. “We have no credibility calling on other countries to fulfill their trade commitments, if we refuse to honor our own trade promises.”