Mexico Is Said to Plan Tariffs on U.S. Goods in Border Trucking Dispute

Mexico will impose additional import tariffs on U.S. goods in retaliation for the U.S. government’s failure to restore a program allowing Mexican trucks to operate north of the border, according to an official at the Economy Ministry.

Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari will announce a new list of U.S. products subject to tariffs today, said an official at the ministry who declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak on the subject.

Mexico’s government is waiting for the U.S. to propose a resolution to the standoff, which started when the U.S. Congress ended a pilot program last year that allowed Mexican trucks to deliver goods inside the U.S. Mexico responded in March 2009 by putting import tariffs on U.S. goods valued at $2.4 billion.

The 2007 pilot program, which let as many as 100 Mexican trucking companies that met safety rules to haul cargo into the U.S., was canceled last year under a provision in a spending bill passed by Congress. The dispute first erupted in 1995 after the U.S. refused to implement a cross-border plan agreed to under the North American Free Trade Agreement amid opposition from U.S. labor groups.

U.S. officials have promised on multiple occasions to take steps to resolve the standoff. President Barack Obama said in August 2009 he was committed to finding a solution.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jens Erik Gould in Mexico City at jgould9@bloomberg.net.

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