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October 25, 2000 10:54 AM, EDT

Despite the explosion in trade between the United States and Canada — from $211 billion in 1993 to $364 billion in 1999, most of which is carried on trucks — the North American Free Trade Agreement is not working as well as it could, says the chief executive officer of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, Canada’s equivalent of American Trucking Associations.

And, says David Bradley, who is also president of the Ontario Trucking Association, the United States has played a large role in Nafta’s failings.

“The day President Clinton unilaterally decided not to open the [U.S.-Mexico] border [to Mexican truckers], Nafta progress stopped,” he says.

“The Mexican border problems are a reflection that trade for the U.S. is not a big issue,” he adds. “This signals a protectionist mentality [is] still alive in Congress.”

For the full story, see the Oct. 23 print edition of Transport Topics. .