US/Mexico trade deal might impact trucks
Annex language attached to the freshly minted trade deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) paves the way for the US to limit how far Mexican trucks can transport goods into the US. The annex says the US “reserves the right” to limit “grants of authority for persons of Mexico to provide cross-border long-haul truck services” outside US border commercial zones, if those limitations “are required to address material harm or the threat of material harm to US suppliers, operators, or drivers.”
Under the provision, “material harm” means a significant loss in the share of the US market for US-owned long-haul truck companies “caused by or attributable to persons of Mexico.”
Trucks move nearly $385 billion in goods between the US and Mexico annually, according to the American Trucking Associations.
Commercial zones generally extend up to 25 miles north of US border municipalities in California, New Mexico and Texas or 75 miles in Arizona.
