Thread: HOW MUCH CONSUMERS SAVE WITH NAFTA TRUCKS. NOT MUCH.

HOW MUCH WILL WE ACTUALLY SAVE AS CONSUMERS WITH THE NAFTA TRUCKS ROLLING THROUGH? CAN YOU SAY POCKET CHANGE. SEE RED/BOLDED PART.

http://www.tradeobservatory.org/headlin ... efID=99893


Mexican Competition Stirs Truckers' Ire
Associated Press
September 7, 2007
By LYNN BREZOSKY


EDINBURG Texas -- At the Flying J truck stop, a group of long-haul drivers watched television and worried whether an impending trickle of Mexican trucks onto U.S. roads might soon wash away their livelihoods.

The drivers have carved out a niche transporting goods that their Mexican counterparts had previously not been allowed to haul more than a few miles past the border.

"That's my business," Gerald Fernow, a 36-year-old driver from Flatonia. "What am I supposed to do? I'm screwed."

It was a sentiment shared by many Thursday as they awaited the possible first arrivals under a pilot program allowing Mexican trucking companies to haul cargo anywhere in the country.

The U.S. Transportation Department granted permission Thursday to Transportes Olympic, based in a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico, to haul cargo anywhere in the United States as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico granted authority to Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution Inc. of El Paso to travel anywhere in Mexico.

While the two companies may cross the border immediately, they might wait a few days while they determine new routes, said John Hill, who runs the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates truck safety.

"What we're hearing from the carriers is they could be ready to go as soon as days from now," Hill told reporters on a conference call from Washington.

Dozens of truckers protested at border crossings in Texas and California on Thursday, denouncing as dangerous and unfair the program that will allow up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to haul throughout the U.S.

Carrying signs reading "NAFTA Kills" and "Unsafe Mexican Trucks," a few dozen protesters circled in the heat for two hours at Laredo's port of entry at the World Trade Bridge on the U.S.-Mexico border.

"What do we want? Safe highways. When do we want them? Now!" they chanted.

By the end of the month, the U.S. plans to give up to 25 Mexican firms permission to haul cargo and will add another 25 per month until reaching 100 by the end of the year under a one-year pilot program, Hill said.

Mexico has also committed to allow trucks from up to 100 U.S. firms to travel anywhere in Mexico by the end of this year, and 14 are poised to receive permission, he said.

So far, 38 Mexican trucking firms have been prescreened to go anywhere in the U.S., said Hill, who expressed confidence that 100 firms would eventually qualify as word spreads. Some trucking firms have been reluctant to apply because the program has been shrouded in uncertainty, he said.

The pilot program is designed to study whether opening the U.S.-Mexico border to all trucks could be done safely.

"This means less traffic and less pollution along our border and more opportunity for U.S. truckers and shippers," Hill said.

The Teamsters union, Sierra Club and watchdog group Public Citizen sued to stop the program, arguing there won't be enough oversight of drivers entering the U.S. from Mexico. But a federal appeals court ruled last week that the Bush administration could move ahead.

Government lawyers said the program is a necessary part of the North American Free Trade Agreement and that trucks enrolled in the program would meet U.S. regulations.

"The success of this pilot project could ultimately bring an end to a 25-year-old process that requires three separate shipments for every product moved by truck between the U.S. and Mexico and save consumers in the two countries over $400 million a year in transport costs," U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said in a statement.
Near San Diego's Otay Mesa border crossing, dozens of truckers led by the Teamsters mixed with anti-illegal-immigration activists. Business was uninterrupted, said Lt. Hector Paredes of the California Highway Patrol, which inspects about 3,000 trucks a day at the crossing.
SO HOW MUCH IS THE SAVINGS PER CONSUMER? LIKE ABOUT FIFTY CENTS EACH? AND TO SAVE FIFTY CENTS EACH WE ARE GOING TO OPEN OUR BORDERS TO TRUCKS FULL OF ILLEGALS, DRUGS AND TERRORISTS? NOT TO MENTION UNDERCUTTING AMERICAN JOBS.
"We're already inspecting Mexican trucks and will continue to inspect them the same way," Paredes said. "These trucks already haul product from Tijuana to San Diego. Now they will be able to go beyond San Diego."

Critics such as Teamsters organizer Hugo Flores doubt that Mexican drivers will be held to the same rules on things such as the length of work shifts and drug testing.

"There are no means to regulate these guys. Bush has opened up highways to unsafe trucks," Flores said at the Laredo protest. "I don't want them sharing the roads with my family."

Interstate 35, which stretches from the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo north to Minnesota, is a major north-south artery though the country.
"Those guys run all the way here and all the way back without sleep," said Roadway Express driver William Scribner, of Laredo. "They don't respect the laws, they don't respect the people."

NAFTA requires that all roads in the United States, Mexico and Canada be opened to carriers from all three countries. Canadian trucking companies already have full access to U.S. roads, but Mexican trucks can travel only about 20 miles inside the country at certain border crossings.

The government says it has imposed rigorous safety protocols in the program, including drug and alcohol testing for drivers done by U.S. companies. Additionally, law enforcement officials have stepped up nationwide enforcement of a law that's been on the books since the 1970s requiring interstate truck and bus drivers to have a basic understanding of written and spoken English.

Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Alicia A. Caldwell in El Paso and Elizabeth White in Laredo contributed to this report.

NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.

We all know that NAFTA means richer corporations.

And, in fact, when consumers are educated, or, at least, made aware of the details and manipulation(s) involved - as in this case - many, will knowingly opt to pay a slightly higher price for a good or service...*if*, they know that rules are being followed and their standard of living is protected.

YEAH I KNOW THAT WE ALL KNOW THAT NAFTA IS FOR CORPORATE PROFIT. I AM JUST SUPRISED TO HEAR ONE OF THEM ADMIT IT.[/list]