Posted on 03/29/2007 8:39:14 AM PDT by Calpernia
The Department of Transportation pilot test designed to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs anywhere in the U.S. has encountered opposition, both in Congress and in Mexico.
Meanwhile, plans to implement the test are progressing at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, as announced by the Department of Transportation in February.
Scott Gerber, spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., confirmed to WND the senator's amendment approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee March 22 to block the test remains in the Emergency Spending Bill on the floor of the Senate.
The amendment, co-sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would prohibit the use of funds to allow Mexican trucks beyond the 20-to-25-mile commercial zone on the U.S.-Mexican border until U.S. trucks are given comparable access to Mexico.
"It is simply unfair to American truckers to restrict their access to Mexico while Mexican drivers are given unrestricted access to U.S. highways on a faster timetable," Feinstein said in a statement. "This amendment will prevent this from happening."
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow to announce the introduction of a NAFTA Trucking Safety Act. The bill is designed to clarify and strengthen current regulations imposed on Mexican motor carriers entering the U.S. beyond commercial zones along the international border.
"This legislation will ensure Mexican truckers are held to the same standards as their American counterparts," Joe Kasper, spokesman for Hunter, told WND. "If Mexican motor carriers cannot meet the same safety and security requirements as American truckers, then they should not be allowed to access our nation's roadways and communities."
In Mexico, a trade association representing Mexican motor carriers has asked the Mexican Senate to cancel the pilot test.
Tirso Martinez Angheben, president of CANCAR, the Camara Nacional Del Autotransporte de Carga, told the Communication and Transportation Committee of the Mexican Senate this week the NAFTA competitive environment was unfair to the Mexican trucking industry.
According to Angheben, U.S.-based trucking companies have invested in infrastructure within Mexico, allowing U.S. truckers to establish a "commercial presence in our country," while prohibitions on Mexican truckers investing in the U.S. create "a commercial disadvantage of great importance."
In a statement running on the group's website, Angheben objected that DOT regulations for Mexican trucks operating in the U.S. "include uneven regulation for Mexican carriers that will not guarantee a fair competitive market in U.S. territory."
In 2001, CANCAR asked the Mexican Senate to cancel the trucking provisions of NAFTA.
"The majority of people in the United States don't want Mexican trucks to go there, and we told our president that we don't want to go, either," CANCAR president Manuel Gomez told the Mexican Senate in 2001. "Nor are we interested in having U.S. trucks come to Mexico."
CANCAR expressed concern the pilot program would "generate strong pressure on salaries paid to Mexican drivers, which in turn will increase the cost of domestic freight in Mexico."
CANCAR is also worried that the Mexican government "lacks the capacity and infrastructure to supervise U.S. carriers entering Mexico and to prevent foreign companies from providing domestic transportation only reserved for Mexican nationals."
Ian Grossman, spokesman for the FMCSA, told WND his group plans to move forward with the DOT pilot test as announced.
"The cross-border trucking demonstration program will bring real benefits and real dollars to the American economy, while maintaining all U.S. safety and security standards," Grossman said. "The department is committed to moving forward with this program and will continue to work with members of Congress to address their concerns."
Eeek! You trying to get me put on mute again!
::admin put me on mute when i posted this. Took me a while to get out of time out::
oh, sorry!
(will mind “p’s” and “q’s” : )
“Soon. I’ve still got 2 of those beers in my fridge.”
They are probably Corona or some other mexican brand.
(I thought you were banned)
bttt
I doubt you thought.
A $15M, $30M Policy?
I wrote a big rant, got so upset, I deleted it. What’s the point. Unless Duncan Hunter, Jeff Sessions, and other patriots put a stop to this monstrosity, the US as we know it is gone.
I’m actually taking ‘disaster preparedness’ measures for the 2008 elections.
Post #25 LOLOLOLOLOL
Doesn't mean he's not correct
What should be killed is this stupid idea of merging Mexican, Canadian and US trade into some sort of NA Union.
Secure the borders, now and free trucking is NOT the way to do so
La de da, we’re ‘integrating with Mexico, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it’. I quote that Mexican govt. minister who blabbed to some California paper a few months back. He sneered, actually. Just a few days ago, the news that the US postal service will be joining, blending, melding with Mexican postal service to ‘help them’ clean up corruption, inefficiency, etc.. Blah, blah, blah, integration goes on right under our noses. They’ll push this through, sneaking bits and pieces into other, necessary legislation. Honest to God, we have to worry about homicidal maniacs in turbans with nukes, Hillary, and invasion from the south. No wonder most of us are depressed.
You should see the lineup of pills I take every morning, no Prozac, but oh, that Vitamin B complex! Now I have to worry that they’re all made in China and full of lead! ARRRGHHH!
What's your piece of this plan?
Your average teamster already sold his soul to the devil. Now they are trying to commit suicide so they can see him faster. That’s why they support the liberals (won’t say democrats anymore because there are just as many libs in the republican party).
I can hijack this thread and entire forum about vitamins.
Raw foods! Raw Foods! Raw foods!
Vitamins have no nutritional value and just give you smelly urine.
Processed foods are not real food (read the labels). They are toxic, cause weight gain, mental and physical health issues and malnutrition.
/thread hijack
Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.
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