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Americans Against Cross-Border Trucking, Survey Finds

According to a new survey, 66 percent of U.S. adults are not keen on opening the border to Mexican trucks operating in the U.S., even as the Obama Administration works to open the border

by Staff
August 13, 2009
2 min to read


According to a new survey, 66 percent of U.S. adults are not keen on opening the border to Mexican trucks operating in the U.S., even as the Obama Administration works to open the border.
Meanwhile, only 19 percent said Congress should lift the ban and allow Mexico to carry their loads on American highways. Fifteen percent are unsure.

The national telephone survey by Rasmussen Reports found that men were more opposed than women, and that 70 percent of voters over the age of 40 were against opening the border. Sixty-eight percent of investors also indicated that they were against it.

The report showed 28 percent of Democrats were sympathetic to the idea of cross-border trucking, compared to 11 percent of Republicans and 16 percent of those unaffiliated with either party.

Last weekend, President Barack Obama, in meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon over the weekend, promised that he will find a way to meet the U.S.' commitment to open the border to Mexican trucks under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Under NAFTA, the crossing was supposed to have been opened to border-state traffic in 1995 and to long-distance traffic in 2000. The opening was stalled until 2007, in part by difficult negotiations with Mexico, but mainly by the legislative and legal tactics of U.S. labor, owner-operator and citizen advocacy groups who fear loss of U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers and argue that Mexican trucks will not be safe.

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