A roundup of North American news:

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 11/1/1999

- A bill passed last month by the U.S. House of Representatives would slap Mexican truckers who are caught venturing beyond the border commercial zone with hefty penalties and disqualification from operating in the United States. An amendment to the Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1999 (H.R. 2679) offered by Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) provides for a fine of $10,000 and a suspension of U.S. operating privileges for six months for any Mexican carrier that intentionally operates without authority beyond the commercial zone. If U.S. authorities find a pattern of intentional violations, the fine would jump to $25,000 and suspension would be permanent. The amendment comes in response to last June's report by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Inspector General that Mexican drivers had been found as far north as the Great Lakes states. At press time, the bill had been referred to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

- Transportación Marítima Mexicana (TMM) and its affiliate, Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), have signed an anti-drug-smuggling agreement with the U.S. Customs Service. Under the pact, Mexico's largest multimodal transportation company and its railroad joint venture with the Kansas City Southern agreed to take steps to prevent the carriers' equipment and facilities from being used by drug smugglers. TMM and TFM will meet standards set by U.S. Customs regarding employee hiring, training, and supervision; security at their facilities and in equipment handling; and in the detection and reporting of illegal activity in and around their premises. Customs authorities, in turn, will provide the carriers with training, assessment, supervision, and counseling on security. By participating in the program, TMM and TFM will be subject to fine mitigation if any contraband should be found in their systems despite the strict security measures. The carriers had been the subject of rumors regarding complicity with drug runners, and the security program is designed in part to dispel any doubts such rumors may have raised among TMM's customers.

- One merger and one acquisition will affect U.S.-Canada cross-border trade services. In Canada, Livingston International Inc. and Blaiklock Inc. were scheduled to merge at the end of last month in what the players termed a "friendly union." Livingston, a trade-services company that employs 1,300 people at more than 70 offices in Canada and the United States, focuses on the movement of goods and information between the United States and Canada. Blaiklock, with more than 300 employees at 27 locations in both countries, offers international freight-forwarding services. According to a Livingston representative, the merger will create the largest trade-services company in North America. In the United States, meanwhile, United Parcel Service announced that it would acquire Trans-Border Customs Services Inc., a Champlain, N.Y.-based customs broker specializing in Canada-to-United States trade. The acquisition will allow UPS to handle customs brokerage for shipments of any size and traveling via any mode between the United States and Canada. Trans-Border's 25 offices in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast will become part of UPS Customhouse Brokerage.