How soon will it be until we start seeing Mexico-based trucks on Texas roads?
“There’s no stamp on the calendar yet,” Texas Tribune reporter Julián Aguilar says. “The Department of Transportation announced last month that this was going to be a slow roll out.”
Currently, trucks hauling goods from Mexico into the U.S. are allowed 25 miles past the border, an area in which warehouse industries prosper because of the necessary transfer to American trucking companies.
“An original provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement was that this would give free range to not only Mexican trucks, but Canadian trucks to traverse the entire United States, and vice versa,” Aguilar says.
The change will affect about $200 million worth of U.S. goods in cross-border trade. Safety concerns heighten the debate, while other economic factors include transportation and fuel costs, agriculture and drought, as well as auto sales.
This story was prepared with assistance by Jan Ross Piedad.
