By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer

Congressional negotiators and the White House struck a deal yesterday to open highways across the United States to Mexican trucks so long as they meet safety
standards, resolving a dispute that had threatened to sour U.S.-Mexican relations.

The agreement, hailed by both sides as vindication of their position, splits the difference on many key points.

The deal was reached after weeks of intensive negotiations to settle the sensitive and highly controversial trucking issue. It has held up approval of a $60 billion
transportation spending bill for the fiscal year that began nearly two months ago.

Earlier this year, the House voted to ban Mexican trucks beyond a narrow border strip to which they are currently confined. While not going as far as the House did,
the Senate voted to subject Mexican trucks to an array of inspection, insurance and other requirements before they could carry loads beyond the border zone.

But President Bush threatened to veto any legislation that violated the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, which joins the United States, Canada and
Mexico in a free trade zone and calls for trucking across the borders of the three countries within reasonable safety restrictions. As part of his effort to improve
relations with Mexico, Bush had issued rules in May under which Mexican trucks could begin long-haul deliveries across the board in January. The proposed
congressional restrictions were aimed at tightening those rules.

The agreement retains safety requirements laid out in the Senate bill but provides for compromise on implementation.

For instance, 50 percent of all trucking firms and 50 percent of all trucking volume will be subjected to on-site inspections within Mexico, rather than 100 percent, as
the Senate would have required. Electronic verification of driver's licenses will be required for every Mexican driver carrying high-risk cargo and for at least half the
other drivers when they cross the border.

In addition, truck border crossings will be restricted. Equipment to weigh trucks while in motion will be required only at the busiest border crossings. The U.S.
secretary of transportation would have the final say on whether a Mexican trucking firm was safe enough.

"We are pleased that we have reached an agreement on Mexican trucks that retains the critical safety principles that are so important to the American people," said
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who helped spearhead the drive for the safety restrictions in the Senate. "The areas of compromise were reached in the
implementation of the safety provisions, where we have afforded the Department of Transportation the latitude to swiftly implement the inspection regime," she
added.

Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), who opposed many of the original safety proposals as extreme and tried to filibuster them, said they, too,
were pleased with the compromise. The agreement "will allow the border to open in a timely manner consistent with our obligations under NAFTA while protecting
the safety of the American traveling public," they said in a statement.

The fight over Mexican trucking took on a political edge last summer when some Republicans, sensing an opportunity to court Hispanic voters, accused Democrats
of displaying an "anti-Hispanic" attitude, as Senate GOP leader Trent Lott (Miss.) put it, in supporting the restrictions.

The restrictions got a powerful boost from organized labor, especially the Teamsters, who waged a vigorous lobbying campaign for strong safety rules.

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