U.S. and Mexican officials will sit down in Mexico City on Thursday to begin discussions on opening the border to truck traffic.

Officials from the Department of Transportation and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office will meet their Mexican counterparts for the first formal discussion since the U.S. was found in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
That finding by a NAFTA arbitration panel put the burden on the U.S. to either open the border or start paying fines to Mexico.
DOT negotiator Dave DeCarme, head of the Maritime, Surface, and Facilitation Division, said the discussions will lay the groundwork for opening the border.
At issue are safety concerns arising from differences between U.S. and Mexican regulatory systems. (See "U.S., Mexico Will Discuss Border Impasse," 3/9/01).
It is likely to take six or more months, and maybe as long as a year, to open the border, according to industry sources and news reports.