Thread: "Barring Mexican trucks violates NAFTA" UPDATED

San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Dead-end road

Barring Mexican trucks violates NAFTA

2:00 a.m. March 5, 2009

Democrats in Congress seem poised, perhaps with the blessing of the Obama administration, to take trade policy down a dead-end road by effectively barring Mexican trucks from U.S. highways.

The Senate is debating a spending bill that would kill a project that encourages cross-border trucking, as required by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The issue of Mexican trucks is the bad penny of U.S. trade policy. It doesn't go away. This has been a crusade of congressional Democrats since the passage of NAFTA more than 15 years ago. And now that Democrats control both houses of Congress and the Oval Office, they have the muscle to get the Mexican trucks off the road.

Never mind that this relentless campaign, which united the Teamsters Union, anti-globalization forces and nativists worried about vanishing borders, violates NAFTA, which opened highways in Canada, Mexico and the United States to truckers from all three countries. Never mind that the whole deplorable debate tarnishes the United States' reputation as a reliable global trading partner at precisely the moment when our markets need to be as open as possible. Never mind that, in trying to bar Mexican trucks, opponents wound up hurting U.S. truckers, who got soft and lost their competitive edge because unions protect them from foreign workers.

If the foes of Mexican truckers triumph, as appears likely, we would return to how it was before 2007, when the Bush administration launched a pilot program to open U.S. highways to Mexican trucks. Back then, Mexican truckers on long-haul jobs had to unload their cargo within 20 miles of the border and re-load it onto U.S. trucks to complete

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ?uniontrib

We all should have been screaming even in 1986 amnesty.

NOT THIS AGAIN!!!

I CAN"T TAKE IT.....

The issue of Mexican trucks on U.S. highways is not only a matter of safety for all those driving the same highways. The drivers will take jobs away from American truckers and lower wages across the country. We've seen it happen in many other industries and occupations. And how many "newcomers" are riding along?

If the foes of Mexican truckers triumph, as appears likely, we would return to how it was before 2007

Let's go even further - let's go back to the days of Eisenhower when we deported all illegals.

Barring Mexican trucks violates NAFTA

That didn't take long now did it! I think the SDUT should move their editorial page down to tijuana....

Never mind that this relentless campaign, which united the Teamsters Union, anti-globalization forces and nativists worried about vanishing borders, violates NAFTA, which opened highways in Canada, Mexico and the United States to truckers from all three countries.

Hopefully this is the first step in dismanteling NAFTA.

Not to mention Human smuggling and drug smuggling.....

Smuggling counterfeit, contaminated and hazardous products from China and other unscrupulous countries.

Dixie

Congress may cut off spending on Mexican trucks

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, The Associated Press 12:53 p.m. March 5, 2009

WASHINGTON — Congress may force President Barack Obama into a showdown with Mexico over free trade.

Lawmakers are preparing to cut off the money for a 1 1/2-year-old pilot program that opened the way for up to 500 Mexican trucks from 100 operators to drive deeper into the United States.

The U.S. has allowed only a few Mexican trucks to drive beyond a southern border buffer zone, although it agreed when it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement to give Mexican trucks full access to U.S. roadways beginning in 1995.

If the U.S. doesn't comply with the NAFTA agreement, Mexico can take retaliatory action such as placing or raising tariffs on U.S. goods.

"If the program is finally defunded by Congress, Mexico will (keep) open all its options, including retaliation," said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the U.S.

White House spokesman Benjamin LaBolt declined in an e-mail to comment about the truck program. But Tren Nguyen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. trade representative's office, said the office is examining all possible options. She would not say what those options are.
For now, Congress isn't one of the options.

The Senate is considering a $410 billion House-passed spending bill that halts funding for the Mexican truck program. Two years ago, the Senate voted 74-24 to cut off the funding. Voting with the majority at the time were Obama and Joe Biden, now the vice president.

Senate Republicans don't even plan to try to keep the program alive now that a Democrat is in the White House.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who tried to keep the money flowing in 2007, is not inclined to do so again, an aide said this week.

"It's very disappointing that my colleagues have chosen protectionism over job creation by eliminating the NAFTA trucking pilot program with Mexico," Cornyn said.

Money for the program could be slipped into other spending bills, but would again face heavy opposition.

Obama discussed NAFTA with Mexican President Felipe Calderon when the two met about a week after Obama took office, and Obama said he would work immediately to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Since 1982, most Mexican trucks have been confined to driving no further than 20 miles into the U.S., except in Arizona, where the limit is 75 miles.

The Teamsters, consumer groups and independent insurers have been pressuring Congress to keep the trucks off U.S. roadways, citing safety concerns.

But some of the strongest opposition has come from unions concerned about U.S. drivers losing jobs and work to lower-paid Mexican drivers.

The Bush administration began the pilot program after a Mexican truck company sued under NAFTA and won. Congress cut funding for the pilot program in late 2007. The Bush administration continued it after finding a loophole in the law.

Bill Adams, a Transportation Department spokesman, declined to comment on whether the agency would do the same again.

Inside U.S. Trade, an online publication, quoted Duane DeBruyne, a spokesman for the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, as saying Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered a review of the Mexican trucks program on Feb. 9. As a House member, LaHood also voted to end the program.

Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador, said keeping Mexican trucks from U.S. roads will raise the cost of goods for producers and consumers.
"This is protectionism," he said. "It has nothing to do with the safety or security of American roads."
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On the Net:
Embassy of Mexico: http://portal.sre.gob.mx/eua/
International Brotherhood of Teamsters: http://www.teamster.org/
American Trucking Associations: http://www.truckline.com/

(This version CORRECTS year Congress first cut funding and first name of FMCSA spokesman.)

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ndex=62241

Hold these folks accountable.