The US and Mexico have announced that they have reached a proposed agreement for resolving the 20-year dispute over trucking between the two countries, which could reopen access to the US for Mexican trucks.

At a joint US-Mexico news conference, US president Barack Obama said that the two sides had “finally found a clear path to resolving the dispute” as part of plans for a “21st century” border to allow people and goods to cross securely and efficiently.

“We’re working to coordinate and streamline regulations and get rid of unnecessary trade barriers to make it easier to do business together,” he said.

Mr Obama said he was moving forward in a way that “strengthens the safety of cross-border trucking, lifts tariffs on billions of dollars of US goods, expands exports to Mexico, and creates jobs on both sides of the border”.

As previously reported by Fruitnet, the proposal was first unveiled in January, but after agreement from the two sides now looks certain to finally bring an end to a dispute that initially arose over US concerns over food safety standards in Mexican truck cargos.