U.S. highway carrier delivers historic load to Mexico

U.S. highway carrier delivers historic load to Mexico Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution became the first-ever U.S. motor carrier to haul freight into Mexico on Friday, even as the Senate joined the House in voting to defund the Bush administration’s one-year pilot program to allow Mexican-based carriers to make deliveries in the U.S. heartland.
   A truck operated by El Paso, Texas-based Stagecoach crossed the border at Nogales, Ariz., with a load of plastic resin bound for Obregon, the U.S. Department of Transportation said.
   Mexican carriers have shuttled freight for years between the two countries within a 20 to 25-mile border zone, but U.S. truckers have never had direct access to the Mexican market.
   Under the DOT demonstration program, up to 100 Mexican trucking companies could receive safety clearance to operate on U.S. interior roads and highways, and Mexico will grant reciprocal rights to U.S. trucking companies.
   Earlier in the week Transportes Olympic, a Mexican trucking company based in Nuevo Leon, became the first Mexican carrier to operate beyond U.S. commercial border zones, as part of the demonstration project. The company delivered a load of steel to North Carolina, where it will be used to build a Baptist church.
   The Senate inserted language in the DOT’s appropriation bill for 2008 to prohibit funds be used for the pilot program, which many lawmakers claim is being rushed despite unanswered questions about the safety of Mexican carriers and the government’s ability to monitor them. Congress has repeatedly blocked U.S. compliance with the North American Free Trade Agreement’s requirement for opening the border to trucking on safety grounds.
   President Bush has suggested he might veto the transportation bill if House and Senate conferees include the cross-border trucking provision.