8 June 2004

High Court Rejects Mexico Trucks Environmental Study

The following article is excerpted from “The New York Times” edition of 7 June 2004.

The Bush administration can allow tens of thousands of Mexican trucks on U.S. highways without conducting an extensive study of the environmental effects, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The justices unanimously overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that federal environmental law required the U.S. Department of Transportation to study the impact from the trucks on air quality.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the administration would move forward with the initiative.

``We are committed to a comprehensive approach to guarantee that trucks and buses operating within the United States are in compliance with all applicable safety and environmental standards,'' he said in a statement.

President Bush said in November 2002 that Mexican trucks should be allowed on roads throughout the country, which would bring the United States in compliance with a key provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The move was aimed at ending a 1982 moratorium, under which Mexican trucks have been able to operate only in certain narrow commercial border zones, where goods must be transferred to U.S. trucks for transport across the nation.

Environmental, labor, consumer and trucking groups sued. They said the Transportation Department had underestimated the impact older diesel Mexican trucks would have on air quality in border states, especially in cities like Houston and Los Angeles that have struggled to reduce pollution to comply with the federal clean air law….

Mexico said the ruling would not end the dispute because U.S. rules still discriminate against Mexican trucks.

``This decision by the Supreme Court only resolves an internal conflict in the United States, between the Department of Transport and a group of environmentalists and (truckers) in the United States,'' Mexico's transport and trade ministries said in a statement.

Jonathan Weissglass, an attorney for the coalition that brought the lawsuit, called it a ``narrow and procedural decision,'' based on the Transportation Department's limited legal powers.

``Today's ruling did not address the serious air pollution concerns posed by tens of thousands of trucks coming over the border. Nor did the court address how border states will be able to comply with federally mandated air quality standards,'' he said.

Mexican trucks make about 4.5 million border crossings each year, according to the U.S. government. Mexico has said it has suffered billions of dollars in economic damages from the moratorium.

The U.S. government argued the appeals court ruling prolonged a significant trade dispute with Mexico, which Bush sought to resolve under the trade agreement that took effect in 1994.

Government lawyers said the delay in compliance with the agreement has caused Mexico to continue parallel restrictions on U.S. trucks and to threaten new trade sanctions.

The groups that brought the lawsuit estimated that 34,000 trucks from Mexico would be on U.S. highways in the first year alone. By 2010, trucks from Mexico would likely emit twice as much of certain pollutants as U.S. trucks, they said….