Thread: Roadblocks on the Border

Roadblocks on the Border

By Cindy Skrzycki
Tuesday, March 20, 2007; D01



The latest plan to let Mexican trucks cross the border to deliver goods to the U.S. heartland is facing the same kind of roadblocks that stalled earlier efforts.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced Feb. 23 a one-year pilot program to allow about 1,000 trucks from 100 Mexican companies to start hauling freight into the United States as soon as the end of April. A coalition of opponents -- unionized truck drivers, safety groups and some members of Congress -- has been erecting barriers since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect on Jan. 1, 1994, and promises to continue.

The American people "will pay the price" for "an incompetent agency, serious safety deficits with Mexican trucks at the border, and the use of a pilot program," said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a public-interest group in Washington.

The renewal of the dispute reflects how difficult it can be for governments to meet international obligations, even those contained in a treaty, in the face of opposition from determined interest groups.

The stakes are high: U.S. trade with Mexico via surface transportation, most of it by truck, was worth $272 billion in 2006, a 13 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Transportation Department. Because of previous restrictions, Mexican trucks have been able to operate only within a 20-mile "commercial zone" across the border, where goods are offloaded and picked up by U.S. carriers.

Full cross-border trade was supposed to open by 1995 under a provision of NAFTA. President Bill Clinton first blocked access because of safety concerns. President Bush's administration tried to open access in 2001, only to see Congress add 22 safety requirements.

This year's shift in control of Congress to the Democrats means the pilot program faces even stiffer opposition. House and Senate committees already have held oversight hearings. One senator accused Peters of withholding information about the program.

Peters assured the committees that the government now has the proper standards in place to allow Mexican big rigs to carry goods safely into the country. U.S. carriers are scheduled to receive equal privileges in Mexico in about six months.

The department said it plans to audit every Mexican carrier and inspect the trucks that will be accepted into the pilot program. Trucks carrying hazardous materials are not part of the program, nor are buses. And Mexican carriers aren't allowed to make deliveries between American cities.

In announcing the pilot program, the department sidestepped its usual rulemaking procedure, so the new program wouldn't have to undergo the typical time-consuming comment period.

A key issue remains whether administration officials already have decided that a full opening of the border is safe.

John Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is implementing the program, said, "There is no plan at this point."

Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), a member of the House subcommittee on highways and transit, said he had a hard time believing that. At a March 13 hearing, he referred to a memo signed by U.S. and Mexican officials last fall that said at the end of the 12-month period that a "full and permanent opening of the border is foreseen."

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) chastised Peters in a March 14 letter for not alerting the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the announcement of the pilot program. She gave no inkling at her confirmation hearing last September that such a move was being considered, Pryor said.

Transportation officials said they had no intention of making that memo a binding document. The administration simply seized the moment, after Mexico recently agreed to let U.S. inspectors audit trucks in Mexico, to announce the program.

"No final decision will be made about next steps until a thorough evaluation of the demonstration project is completed," said Ian Grossman, a spokesman for the motor carrier safety office.

Supporters of the administration plan include trade groups representing U.S. trucking companies and U.S. shippers.

John Ficker, president and chief executive of the National Industrial Transportation League, a Washington-based trade group representing some 600 shippers, said the government should live up to its NAFTA obligations. He also said Mexican carriers "should subscribe to any of the rules that apply to a U.S.-based carrier, including safety. Period."

A few American trucking companies already have set up shop in Mexico. Others said they were having doubts about traveling south of the border.

Contract Freighters, a privately owned, nonunion company in Joplin, Mo., has been shipping goods into Mexico for 20 years. That trade now accounts for 40 percent of its revenue, said Herbert Schmidt, president and chief executive.

He said he had misgivings about changing the current arrangement, where U.S. trucking companies have Mexican partners doing the hauling into Mexico.

He said that during the last three months, four of his company's textile-filled trailers were stolen at gunpoint in Mexico, though Mexicans were driving.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has long opposed what it views as a potential flood of cheap labor competing for its drivers' jobs while using what it claims are unsafe rigs.

"They do not meet our standards," Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said in an interview. "It's not a level playing field when these people come in here with fake log books and they are on drugs. There is not one drug testing facility in Mexico. We are talking about drivers who buy a commercial driver's license in Tijuana."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01526.html

He also said Mexican carriers "should subscribe to any of the rules that apply to a U.S.-based carrier, including safety. Period."

Yea! Like the Illegals subscribe to all our laws now? Does anyone really think Mexican truckers will? What an idiot!

My concerns with this really bad deal are these,


DOT can inspect 10% effectively now. What will they do with the added trucks (most Mexican trucks are under maintained as it is) they wont be inspecting all the trucks and that scares people. Most of the trucks are bought in America Second hand.


The mEXICA truckers are paid about 18 cents a mile to bring loads in, what they take out is up for grabs. Americans won’t move any loads for a lower price, why should we have too. (Is it a fixed rate plan?)

Americans wont be allowed to move loads into Mexico for one year, most guys I talk to don’t want to any way for fear of being detained by corrupt cops. But why, can they come in now but we cant go down for a year?


Americans pay taxes to drive on theses roads .What the tax break will out of country trucks receive?

They crime rate is already out of control; I can see many more drugs and people crossing over and that’s a big problem, the crime rate will double
Just imagine the criminals that will sneak in and out.


WHAT ON GODS GREEN EARTH DOES MEXICO MAKE OR SELL, THAT AMERICANS CANT LIVE WITH OUT?

We don’t need this right now. Nor in the near future