Dallas Regional Chamber Advocates for NAFTA; U.S. - Mexico
Trucking Program

The Dallas Regional Chamber opposes the decision made by the U.S. Congress to end the pilot project allowing trucks to operate across the U.S.-Mexico border. The success of the pilot program was proven and no significant abuses (related to security or otherwise) were reported. It is abundantly clear that the decision is defiant of our trade agreement and therefore protectionist in nature.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the United States of America committed to open its borders to Mexican trucks and since has refused to fully implement our obligations under the treaty. This response has precipitated a negative reaction in the form of selective trade tariffs imposed on various U.S. products by the Mexican government. Both actions serve to further alienate our nations at a time when our need for mutual cooperation, particularly economic cooperation, is greatest.

Economic development is critical to the global competitiveness of the United States and its communities and businesses, our government must foster an environment that supports trade and investment. These new trade barriers denigrate this environment and go against all supporting data: NAFTA is good for U.S. business.

Many, perhaps most, of the NAFTA and other free trade benefits for DFW are under the statistical radar because they come through our function as an intermodal logistics hub. As such, we do not have clear estimates of the value of goods that pass through our distribution networks on their way to Mexico, via the NAFTA highway, or heading to the Houston seaport. However, it is clear that trade and in particular exports to Mexico have increased exponentially since the inception of NAFTA.

• Exports leaving North Texas airports in 1994, two years after NAFTA was signed, reached about $4 billion.
• In 2008, some $20 billion in exports left North Texas airports, 4% of which went to the NAFTA region.
• Nearly $216 billion in exports cleared Customs through Texas ports (sea and inland alike) last year, with just over 50% headed to Mexico.
• North Texas companies are estimated to account for about 34% of the productivity in Texas and thus account for closer to $75 billion (estimate) of last year’s Texas exports.

The Dallas Regional Chamber strongly encourages the U.S. Congress to meet and fulfill our treaty obligations, and thus promote needed economic growth and competitiveness. U.S. jobs are at stake.

For more information on the Chamber's international legislative affairs and our NAFTA initiatives, contact Sarah Carabias-Rush at (214) 746-6750 or srush@dallaschamber.org.