U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the head of the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Dionisio Arturo Pèrez-Jàcome Friscione, joined in Mexico City to sign agreements resolving the dispute over long-haul, cross-border trucking services between the United States and Mexico.
The new program puts safety first and paves the way for Mexico to lift tariffs it imposed more than two years ago. Pursuant to an agreement signed by the United States Trade Representative and the Secretaría de Economía of the United Mexican States, Mexico will soon lift retaliatory tariffs on more than $2 billion in U.S. manufactured goods and agricultural products, providing opportunities to increase U.S. exports to Mexico and expanding job creation in the U.S.
The agreement also provides that Mexico will suspend 50 percent of the retaliatory tariffs by July 16. Mexico will suspend the remainder of the tariffs by July 11 of the first Mexican trucking company receiving its U.S. operating authority. As a result, Mexican tariffs that now range from five to 25 percent on an array of U.S. agricultural and industrial products such as apples, certain pork products, and personal care products would be immediately cut in half and will disappear entirely within a few months.
