金庸世界序章物品代码:U.S..-Mexican trucking deal to boost competitiveness: minister

U.S.-Mexican trucking deal to boost competitiveness: minister
16:58, July 06, 2011      
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by Maja Wallengren
Mexican trucks have been allowed to operate in U.S. territory starting this week under a new deal between the two countries, Mexican transport and communications minister said Tuesday.
The deal is expected to "significantly" improve the competitiveness of Mexico's transportation and export sectors, which target the U.S. as its main market, Dionisio Perez-Jacome told Xinhua in an interview.
"This is very important because about 70 percent of Mexican exports are shipped by road and this will allow for much more options in transport that will make Mexico more competitive and at the same time reduce the transportation costs significantly," Perez-Jacome said.
The deal was a result of an agreement between Mexican President Felipe Calderon and U.S. President Barack Obama and will take effect this week, putting an end to a decade-long trade dispute between the two countries.
"The agreement on the operational rules will be signed this week and once this is signed, Mexican trucks will be able to cross the border," Perez-Jacome said.
The original transportation chapter in the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, allowed Mexican trucks to travel on U.S. highways starting in 1995. But the U.S. refused to allow this provision to take effect, citing security concerns over the Mexican trucks and drivers.
Mexico rebuffed the concerns as invalid reasons and said the U.S. was using it as a pretext to block free trade.
After more than a decade of heated bilateral discussions over the issue, Mexico took the U.S. to a trade court which found that the U.S. had violated trade rules and in 2009 authorized Mexico to slap retaliatory duties on U.S. export goods worth 2.4 billion U.S. dollars.
Besides the trucking deal, the minister said the government is spending billions of dollars on infrastructure projects to help improve and modernize Mexico's transportation networks.
Public spending on infrastructure has been raised to 4.8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP) from 3 percent under the last administration.
"In the first four years of this administration we have constructed and modernized more than 15,600 km of roads and highways," Perez-Jacome said, adding that 17.5 billion dollars are currently being invested in 19 projects.
In addition, another 50 projects are in different stages of preparation and are expected to make Mexico's east-west and north-south transportation corridors much more efficient.
The minister spoke highly of the highway that links the Pacific coast port of Mazatlan with the Gulf of Mexico port of Matamoros, a project that will reduce the traveling time by 6 hours.
Source: Xinhua
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