Number: RL31738
Title: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Implementation: the Future of Commercial Trucking Across the Mexican Border
Authors: Robert S. Kirk, Resources, Science, and Industry Division 
Abstract: With the U.S. committed to implementing NAFTA, most ongoing issues of interest to Congress, once Public Citizen v. DOT is resolved, are issues of oversight. The most immediate issues is oversight of implementation on the U.S. side of the border within the context of U.S. treaty obligations and the safety enforcement preconditions Congress set forth in the FY2002 DOT Appropriations Act. Mexican implementation may become a major oversight issue. The Mexican government, as of this writing, has neither accepted applications by U.S. firms to operate in Mexico, nor set forth the regulations for doing so. Other oversight issues include whether the role of Mexican customs brokers and drayage operators in cross-border trade is a barrier against U.S. trucking firms; the possible illegal operation of Mexican trucks beyond their operating authority in the United States; and the leasing of Mexican trucks and drivers by U.S. firms for use in the United States.
Pages: 26
Date: September 22, 2004