Mex-Am border deal will not limit trucks

Mexico City – Unlike the former Mexican truck pilot project, the new cross-border transport pact between Mexico and the U.S. will not limit the number of Mexican truckers who will have full access to the American market.

According to CNN, Mexican officials unveiled several details of the recent agreement that ended a two-year trade war between the two NAFTA countries.

The Bush Administration’s "demonstration" program capped the number of approved carriers at 100, but Mexico’s Communications and Transportation Minister Dionisio Perez-Jacome told media this week that an unlimited number of truckers can register for cross-border transport.

They will have to comply with tougher equipment safety rules and reportedly have to be immediately equipped with EOBRs, which the U.S. DOT will have full control over.

Drivers will also need to be proficient in English and be subjected to frequent drug tests.

When the former pilot program in 2007 was de-funded by a Democrat-controlled Congress, Mexico retaliated by slapping tariffs on 100 U.S. exports.

Perez-Jacome said the first phase of the program begins with provisional authorization of select carriers. Following that, there will be a three-month period of thorough inspections of the vehicles crossing the border, with checks decreasing in the fourth month, he said.

The last phase involves the Mexican companies being notified of their permanent authorization if they have shown to follow all the rules consistently for 18 months, Perez-Jacome said.

A "binational commission" will be created to monitor the phases.

The agreement is expected to be signed by the two country’s leaders by June, at which time Mexico will drop half of its retaliatory tariffs.