You'll soon being seeing safe, modern Mexican rigs driven by professional drivers on US highways as the US finally complies with it's obligations under NAFTA
It’s all procedural, but FMCSA has refused demands by the Owner Operators Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) to halt implementation of the Cross Border Pilot Program pending resolution of the frivolous and baseless lawsuit filed against the agency earlier this month.
OOIDA’s legal counsel, Paul Cullen Sr. with The Cullen Law Firm, sent a letter to FMCSA on July 8 asking the agency to consent to stay the program pending resolution of the petition for review.
FMCSA’s counsel denied the request on July 13.
Under rules of procedure, OOIDA was required to ask FMCSA for the stay because a party to such an appeal, (OOIDA) cannot ask the court for a stay unless it first asks the agency (FMCSA) and is turned down.
On July 6, OOIDA filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. OOIDA is demanding that the court review the program and to “enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in part), or determine the validity of the implementation of this program.”
OOIDA claims that “implementation of the pilot program is arbitrary, capricious and abuse of discretion and otherwise not in accordance with law.”
This is just another of OOIDA’s attempts to mislead the public and prevent the United States from complying with their obligations under NAFTA.
Implementation of the cross border program will finally put us in compliance and cause Mexico to lift the legal retaliatory tariff’s put on more than 90 US export good when the Obama administration defunded the previous pilot program. Those tariffs have cost Americans more than 25,000 jobs and 14% market share in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencers admitted in a “Call to Action” that neither the lawsuit, nor a bill before Congress, HR-2407 , has a snowballs chance in hell of stopping the program.
In their desperation, OOIDA resorted to filing this lawsuit which on it’s face is “arbitrary, capricious and frivolous” inasmuch as the issues raised have already been resolved by the US Supreme Court in the case “PUBLIC CITIZEN v FMCSA” In the unanimous decision, SCOTUS sided with the defendants.
The D.C appeals court is likely to rule against OOIDA in this lawsuit also.
MEXICO CITY – Mexico will maintain punitive tariffs on 99 U.S. products but will not add any more goods or change the list pending negotiations over a new program to allow Mexican cargo trucks on U.S. roads, the government announced Monday.
Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari said the move is a show of goodwill as the two countries begin discussing an initiative the U.S. presented last week to lift a U.S. ban on Mexican trucks.
“As of this moment we stop that rotating process” — the expansion of the taxed list and the periodic changing of goods subject to the punitive tariffs, Ferrari said after a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
The Mexican government has protested the U.S. ban on Mexican trucks as a violation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mexico initially levied higher tariffs on 89 U.S. products in March 2009, after the U.S. Congress failed to renew the pilot program that let a limited number of Mexican trucking companies haul freight beyond a 25-mile (40-kilometer) border commercial zone.
Last year, Mexico added 10 more goods and changed some of the products on the list after the U.S. failed to present a proposal for resolving the dispute.
Mexico’s punitive tariffs range from 5 percent to 15 percent on everything from cheese, fruits, juice and pork products to wine and toilet paper.
The tariffs have caused U.S. companies about $2 billion in commercial losses, Kirk said.
SOURCE: AP STORY
Mexico will impose additional import tariffs on U.S. goods in retaliation for the U.S. government’s failure to restore a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate north of the border, according to an official at the Economy Ministry.
Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari plans to announce a new list of U.S. products subject to tariffs today,sources at the ministry advised MTO. The official declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak on the subject. Ferrari said the list will be published this week but refused to give further details. The total value of products tariffed would not exceed $2.5 billion, he said.
Mexico’s embassy in Washington said the revised list will include 99 products. A U.S. industry source said the retaliation is expected to hit U.S. pork.
Mexico’s government has patiently been waiting for the U.S. to propose a resolution to the standoff, which started when the U.S. Congress ended a pilot program last year that allowed Mexican trucks to deliver goods inside the U.S. Tired of the United States broken promises, Mexico responded in March 2009 by putting import tariffs on valued at $2.4 billion.
The United States agreed to open its market to Mexican trucks as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect in 1994, but the U.S. Teamsters union and many of its supporters in Congress have fought implementation of that pledge.
Mexican based carriers have consistently shown an equal or better safety ratings than their US counterparts.
U.S. officials have promised on multiple occasions to take steps to resolve the standoff, and each time reneged. Presiden Barack Obama said in August 2009 he was committed to finding a solution.
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