Industry News

Mexico Lifts Retaliatory Tariffs

October 21, 2011


On October 21, 2011, Mexico announced in its Diario Oficial that it has suspended the remaining retaliatory tariffs which had resulted from the U.S.-Mexico Cross border trucking dispute. 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 10th. 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.