REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

CROSS-BORDER TRUCKING DEMONSTRATION NEWS CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, D.C.

MARCH 10, 2008
9:45 AM

Good morning and thanks to all of you for being here. I want to thank all the organizations represented here for joining us, and especially to thank Governor John Engler (National Association of Manufacturers), Audrae Erickson (Corn Refiners Association), Bob Stallman (American Farm Bureau Federation), and Cal Cohen (Emergency Committee for American Trade) for their leadership.

Today our nation is experiencing a tremendous growth in the amount and value of products we export. Every day, for example, thousands of truckers cross our border into Mexico with billions worth of goods like the ones we see in front of us. These drivers are benefiting from the world’s fastest growing and most lucrative shipping trade.

But until this past year, not a single one of those drivers was from the United States. That is because, for as long as anyone can remember, U.S. trucks, U.S. drivers and U.S. businesses have not been permitted by the federal government of Mexico to cross our border.

Meanwhile, every day thousands of trucks from Mexico cross our border and operate safely within the United States.

All that changed last September, when we established a cross-border trucking demonstration project designed to give American companies their first-ever access to the highly lucrative business of moving goods across our southern border. This access was something our truckers and our businesses were first promised 14 years ago with the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Today it is an access that is giving growers and manufacturers a more efficient and profitable way to ship American goods into Mexico. Thanks to our trucking project, the same American trucks that pick these goods up in places like Kansas, Iowa or California can now take them directly to Monterrey, Juarez and Tijuana, without delay or diversion of profits.

Yet, at a time when our exports are surging, at a time when our shippers need all the opportunities they can get, and at a time when our economy should not have to weather needless delays and added costs, some in Congress are calling for an end to this trucking project.

Such an end would once again force our U.S. truckers to sit idle while thousands of their colleagues from Mexico continue to safely haul goods into the U.S. And it would force American businesses to cancel lucrative contracts to ship products and produce to and from Mexico.

Even worse, as you are about to hear, such an end poses a serious threat to many of our most successful businesses.

Should Congress fail to keep its promise and instead end the cross-border trucking program, under the rules of the NAFTA agreement Mexico has the right to impose fees and tariffs on the very goods we have seen this morning, and many more.

As you will hear from the others joining me here today, the implications of any new tariffs for our workers and our economy would be serious and widespread.

It is hard to understand why anyone would choose a time like this to slam the door on growth and profits for U.S. businesses.

Perhaps they don’t think state and federal law enforcement officials can handle a few dozen more trucks from Mexico joining the thousands that already safely operate on our roads every day? Or maybe they don’t believe American workers and business can compete and succeed in other countries? Or maybe they just don’t want us to have anything to do with Mexico?

Whatever their reason, this is no time to let the politics of pessimism dim the promise of prosperity for hundreds of thousands of American drivers, growers and manufacturers.

We should be looking for every chance to open new markets for our drivers, to find new buyers for our products, and to encourage new consumers for our produce. Our drivers and our workers do not deserve a timeout from hope, success and prosperity.

So my message to Congress is clear. If you want to help American businesses thrive, back American agricultural success, and champion American highway safety, then keep on trucking with cross-border shipping.

Thank you and now I would like to ask Audrae Erickson to make a few remarks.