Free-Market Moves for Mexican, U.S. Truckers Delayed : Trade: Postponement of implementation of NAFTA provision pleases labor but outrages trucking industry.

In a move that pleased labor groups and outraged the U.S. trucking industry, the Clinton administration on Monday postponed implementation of new trade provisions that were to give U.S. and Mexican truckers greater access to each other’s turf.

The last-minute move was hailed as a victory by the Teamsters union and other groups who opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement clause giving Mexican truckers access to four border states, saying it would cost U.S. truckers their jobs and pose safety hazards for drivers and residents.

Trucking industry groups, however, said the Clinton administration was caving in to labor “at the 11th hour” to curry votes for the upcoming presidential election. The 500,000-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a consistent NAFTA opponent, filed suit last week in federal court in Washington to block the trucking provision.

Mexico’s secretary of communication and transport, Carlos Ruiz Sacristan, declined comment on the delay.

Monday was to have been the first day U.S. trucks could venture into the six Mexican states along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican trucks were to have been admitted throughout Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, far beyond the 15-mile penetration that Mexican trucks are now allowed.

Trucks would have to meet the other country’s safety, environmental and insurance standards and apply for formal permits to cross.

The trucking provision was a part of NAFTA, the bill signed two years ago designed to gradually eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers among the United States, Canada and Mexico. By 2000, the bill gives truckers from all three countries access to roads throughout North America.

Over the past 18 months, trucking and government officials from the U.S. and Mexico and the adjoining states have held numerous meetings with cross-border counterparts to hash out the practical application of the NAFTA clause.

The process has been bumpy. California and Texas officials have expressed doubt that their border inspection stations were properly staffed and equipped to handle a significant increase in traffic in either direction that the clause might generate. They complained that the federal government had left too much enforcement and funding responsibility to them.

Both U.S. and Mexican federal governments have expressed reservations about the law. Mexico was initially resistant to allowing the large 53-foot tractor-trailer vans hauled by U.S. truckers, while U.S. officials expressed concerns about pollution standards and the training of drivers in Mexico.

Still, general agreement had been reached and Monday’s deadline had been in place for 18 months. So it came as a surprise Monday morning when U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said that he and his Mexican counterpart, Ruiz, will begin “new consultations this week to further improve safety and security measures.”

In the meantime, permit applications will be taken from Mexican trucking firms but not approved until after those consultations are completed, Pena said. Pena was not specific about which provisions were at issue, but said that the delay did not represent a setback for NAFTA.

Pena also didn’t say how much more time might be needed to complete the consultations, but U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor estimated 45 days.

“We’re trying to make sure American highways are safe and secure . . . and the NAFTA is implemented in a careful, cautious and reasonable manner,” Kantor said in a conference call with reporters.

Pena denied that the postponement was spurred by the Teamsters’ lawsuit. But American Trucking Assns. President Thomas J. Donahue said the delay was merely “election year politics.”

“I was absolutely astounded that the White House would change their position at this point after all this time and all this preparation and all the investments that the governments and companies had made on both sides of the border,” Donahue said.

The Teamsters, which raised the specter of Mexican truckers hauling truckloads of toxic waste and other hazardous materials into the United States because of inadequate border inspections, called the postponement a “temporary victory for highway safety.”

A spokesman for the California Truckers Assn. said it was his group’s understanding that implementation was being deferred simply because border inspection facilities are still inadequate.

But the California Highway Patrol said Monday that it was prepared to enforce the new rules. “We’re ready to go, whenever it’s implemented,” said Thomas W. Ross, CHP’s top NAFTA coordinator.

Staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.