Next on Obama’s plate: Mexico

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Updated Dec 14, 2009

President Obama has made much of reversing his predecessor’s decisions, and the next big enchilada could be cross-border trucking. News reports indicate the pilot program with Mexico is part of the Department of Transportation’s appropriations bill, which the Senate will be discussing this week. Reports David Hendricks of the Houston Chronicle:

“The talk on the streets of Washington is about how the Obama administration treats cross-border trucking will be a litmus test on bilateral relations with Mexico,” Kyle Burns, Free Trade Alliance president and chief executive, said last week after returning from a Washington visit with federal transportation officials.

There hasn’t been much written on this, though the Mexico Trucker Online liberally interjects pro-Mexico comments about how safe the program has been. News reports indicate Mexico would issue trade sanctions if its partner axes the cross-border program. These could be higher tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and refusal to allow U.S. deliveries inside Mexico.