Teamsters Seek to Block Mexican Trucks
Tuesday April 24, 6:39 pm ET
By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Business Writer
Teamsters, Environmental Groups File Suit to Block Mexican Trucks From United States


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several labor and environmental groups said Tuesday they have asked a federal court in California to block a Transportation Department plan that would allow Mexican-based trucking companies to operate throughout the United States.


The Teamsters Union, The Sierra Club, Public Citizen and the Environmental Law Foundation sued the department and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, alleging that the plan is illegal because federal officials have not sufficiently notified the public and allowed for public comment.

The groups also argue that allowing Mexican trucks to operate in the United States, beyond the restricted zone near the border where they are currently allowed, would create safety and environmental problems.

Under a one-year pilot program announced by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters in February, up to 100 Mexican trucking companies would be allowed to operate in the United States, once they pass safety inspections by U.S. inspectors, obtain insurance from a U.S.-licensed firm and demonstrate they can understand questions and directions in English, among other requirements.

Peters said then that the first trucks to pass the inspections could enter the United States within 60 days, or by late April.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation referred calls on the issue to the FMCSA. Representatives of the FMCSA did not return calls seeking comment.

"The Bush administration is ignoring the American people in its zeal to open our borders to unsafe Mexican trucks," Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said in a written statement. "This reckless pilot program must be stopped and the driving public protected."

The lawsuit asks the court to require the Transportation Department and the FMCSA to either provide greater information about the program and an opportunity for public comment, or to shut the program down.

The legal complaint is the latest chapter in a long-running dispute over the operation of Mexican trucks in the United States. Under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, trucks from Canada, Mexico and the United States were supposed to be able to operate in all three countries, but the issue of Mexican trucks in the United States has been tied up in litigation for years.

Currently, Mexican trucks have to unload their cargo at or near the U.S. border, where it is then picked up by U.S. trucks, a process that Peters has said "is a waste of time, energy and money."

Transportation officials said in February that in return for the pilot program, U.S. trucks would be able to operate in Mexico, where they have been barred in retaliation for the restrictions on Mexican trucks in the United States.

"The Mexican trucking demonstration program will bring real benefits and real dollars to the American economy while maintaining all U.S. safety and security standards," the department said in March.

The pilot program has also encountered opposition in Congress. A Senate panel voted last month to require the administration to delay the program by publishing additional information about it and allowing public comment. That measure was included in legislation that would provide supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has not yet passed Congress.

For once I'm glad the teamsters are around!