I’ve been blogging the NAFTA trucking dispute since 2008. Under NAFTA, Mexican trucks were supposed to be able to operate in Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona by December 1995. That never happened, and it took a dozen years for a pilot program to be started, only to be aborted in 2009. Another pilot took place […]
A Mexican truck will make a delivery to a Dallas suburb this afternoon, thereby realizing some of the liberalization promised by NAFTA 17 years ago. WaPo: The first Mexican carrier to deliver goods in the U.S. interior under a long-delayed free-trade provision is scheduled to enter the country at Laredo, Texas, shortly after midday Friday. […]
WSJ: President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon reached a deal resolving a longstanding dispute over cross-border trucking that has subjected the U.S. to billions of dollars in punitive tariffs. The plan, unveiled at a news conference by the two presidents, will allow for half of those tariffs to be lifted immediately. It will […]
The long-running NAFTA trucking dispute remains deadlocked. After 15 years, the US continues to refuse to allow Mexican trucks on US roads, citing safety concerns as cover for political motives. Cato’s Dan Ikenson says that Mexico is right to retaliate with tariffs after winning at both the NAFTA dispute settlement panel (2001) and the US […]
Remember those NAFTA trucking provisions that were never implemented (and thus make fears of a North American Union or NAFTA Superhighway particularly ridiculous)? Ben Muse reports that the US Department of Transportation has moved to implement them during the last three months, despite the efforts of Congress to stymie the project. Along related lines, recall […]
Emily Oster finds a downside to exports in Africa – transportation and trade spread epidemics (pdf): I find a large and significant positive relationship between HIV and exports: a doubling of exports appears to lead to as much as a quadrupling in number of new HIV infections, which suggests that if exports overall had been […]
Trade Diversion 