Free Trade Alliance forms new Cross Border Trucking Coalition
San Antonio Business Journal | Monday, April 20, 2009
Free Trade Alliance forms new Cross Border Trucking Coalition
by Tamarind Phinisee
The Free Trade Alliance is launching a group called the Cross Border Trucking Coalition.
The coalition will be comprised of companies, industry organizations, trade associations, and business chambers that support trade, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and cross-border trucking efforts, projects and programs. The Free Trade Alliance is currently soliciting members throughout the United States and Mexico.
The coalition is being formed to address the U.S. Department of Transportation’s recent cancellation of its Cross Border Trucking Demonstration Project. Mexico has responded with new tariff on U.S. goods. Free Trade Alliance officials say these actions are heavily affecting the U.S. agriculture and industrial sectors.
The original goal of the demonstration project was to allow qualified Mexican trucking companies to travel on U.S. highways to deliver goods to their destinations. The project sought to alleviate the bottleneck that exists along the border. Current law allows Mexican trucking companies to only travel within a 25-mile commercial zone north of the U.S.-Mexico border before drivers submit their trailers to customs and inspections.
The Free Trade Alliance is a public-private partnership with a mission of developing and enhancing the international trade-related economic development of San Antonio and the region through foreign investment, trade development and advocacy.
