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WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush said Feb. 7 that Mexican trucks carrying international cargo will be permitted to operate throughout the U.S., reversing a long-standing Clinton administration policy against the open-border trucking provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The financial dispute over a federally mandated antilock brake system warning light is apparently being resolved, less

President Bush’s swift agreement to open the U.S.-Mexico border to international truck traffic shows his commitment to trade between North America’s most populous neighbors and to promises made along the campaign trail.

Will the global supply chain continue to fuse and fortify? Or will the links be fractured — and business fortunes fractionalized — by shortsightedness.

With new cargo securement regulations emerging from the Department of Transportation, carriers are worried that enforcement of the new rules will be spotty.

Capping a two-nation research effort that began eight years ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is putting the finishing touches on its proposed North American Cargo Securement Standard, intended to bring uniformity to regulations governing the way cargo is secured to truck trailers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The financial dispute over a federally mandated antilock brake system warning light is apparently being resolved, less than a month before it threatened to stop production of new tractors and trailers.

President Bush last week sent his $1.6 trillion tax-cut plan to Capitol Hill, where trucking is expected to voice its strong support for repeal of the estate tax and acceleration of increased meals tax deductions for truck drivers.

At the request of the California Trucking Association and the pipeline industry, the California Public Utilities Commission agreed Jan. 26 to exempt petroleum pipelines from rolling electricty blackouts that have disrupted businesses for weeks.