Groups Call for Resolution to Mexican Trucking Issue
US - An ad hoc coalition, which includes the National Pork Producers Council and 140 other business, manufacturing, food and agricultural organizations, yesterday sent a letter to President Obama urging him to quickly resolve a dispute with Mexico over allowing its trucks to transport goods into the United States.Mexican trucks now are prohibited from entering the United States despite a North American Free Trade Agreement provision that called for allowing them starting in December 1995 and a February 2001 NAFTA dispute-settlement panel ruling that excluding Mexican trucks violated US obligations under the trade deal. Mexico recently retaliated against a host of US goods, raising tariffs on a number of products.
“We need to get this trucking issue resolved,” said NPPC President Don Butler, “because, although US pork products were not included on the retaliation list, they could be in the future, and, more importantly, our trading partners need assurance that the United States will live up its trade obligations.”