Mexico to Lift Retaliatory Tariffs

October 19, 2011

On October 14, 2011, Transportes Olympic, a Mexican trucking business, became the first carrier to receive permission from the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to operate beyond U.S. commercial border zones under a new cross-border trucking program. Mexico’s Economy Minister subsequently announced that Mexico would proceed to lift 99 percent of the retaliatory tariffs it imposed on U.S. goods after the cancellation of a 2009 pilot trucking program, bringing an end to a sixteen year dispute between the United States and Mexico over cross-border trucking. Mexico lifted 50 percent of the retaliatory tariffs in July following U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Mexican Secretary of Communication and Transportation signing a Memorandum of Understanding on Cross Border Trucking (MOU) on June 10^th. Mexico applied retaliatory tariffs to a wide range of products, including apples, grapes, pears, potatoes and pork. Under the new trucking program, Mexican trucks can transport cargo across the U.S.-Mexican border, but cannot deliver cargo between U.S. cities. The March agreement provides U.S. trucks reciprocal rights to operate in Mexico.