Mexican trucking association flip-flops on cross-border issue

Mike

Well-Known Member
After nearly two years of resisting the opening of the U.S.-Mexico border to long-haul trucking operations, the Mexican motor carrier association now is taking the U.S. to “NAFTA court.”

Canacar filed a Notice of Arbitration on Thursday, April 2, claiming the shutdown of the cross-border trucking demonstration program is a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The filing seems to indicate that Canacar, the association representing both Mexican motor carriers and drivers, has done a 180 and now seems to advocate an opening of the border.

The resistance
From the onset of the now-defunct long-haul cross-border trucking program between the U.S. and Mexico, Canacar fought to end the program.

“Canacar has formally requested not to open the borders for trans-border services and to have the pilot program suspended until conditions for a fair competitive environment are existing and that the Mexican trucking industry has the guarantee of not being subject to unfair inequitable and discretional treatment by U.S. authorities,” Canacar National President Tirso Martinez Angheben wrote in a press release in March 2007.

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Curious timing
The filing of the Notice of Arbitration could be considered curious in itself.

The Notice was filed April 2, less than two weeks after Canacar officials called off a strike after reaching an 11th-hour deal with the Mexican government.

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What’s next?
The arbitration process is clearly outlined in the NAFTA agreement.

The agreement has a provision that keeps decisions like that from going unchecked. The agreement’s Chapter 11 lists two international arbitration bodies in which NAFTA investor-state disputes can be heard.

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Read the full story by Jami Jones/Land Line
 

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