U.S. opening highways to Mexican trucks

The United States and Mexico signed an agreement in Mexico City Wednesday that will permit Mexican trucks to operate on U.S. highways. In return, Mexico will cancel tariffs ranging between 25% and 50% that it imposed oncertain U.S. products in retaliation for the decision of the Obama Administration in 2009 to cancel a pilot cross-border trucking program initiated under President George W. Bush.

Current practice permits most truckers based in Mexico to operate in the U.S. only within small commercial zones near border crossings.

According to the trucking publication Transport Topics, Mexican trucks enter the U.S. about 4.5 million times a year.