In Tit for Tat, Mexico Vows to Bar U.S. Trucks

President Vicente Fox pledged Thursday to bar American trucks until Mexican truckers are allowed on U.S. highways, a day after the U.S. Senate voted to impose tough restrictions on the entry of big rigs from Mexico.

At a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Fox said: “If no agreement is reached, there won’t be any Mexican trucks up there, because they don’t want them, but there won’t be any American trucks down here, either.”

“There currently aren’t any American trucks in Mexico, and there won’t be any unless we reach a mutual, equitable and well-thought-out agreement on the issue,” Fox said.

Mexico’s economy secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez, said the Bush administration had assured him that it had enough votes to sustain a veto of the Senate bill.

The North American Free Trade Agreement says Mexican trucks should have been allowed in starting in 1998. Bush wants to allow those trucks, currently restricted to a commercial zone that runs up to 20 miles north of the border, to begin delivering international shipments throughout the United States beginning Jan. 1.

U.S. officials have delayed that opening based on safety concerns. Under the Senate bill, the Mexican trucks could not move freely until the trucking companies were audited by U.S. officials; border stations got more inspectors and scales; and insurance, driving and other standards were met.