Posted on 05/03/2007 7:49:12 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Nearly 30 Mexican trucking companies have passed safety inspections that would allow them to make deliveries to the U.S. heartland, but it still will take months before the first trial of cross-border trucking can begin.
"What we're waiting for now is for the Mexican government to review the applications they have for U.S. companies," said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Department.
But those reviews won't allow the department to stick with a timeline it initially had proposed to implement a provision in the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement. When it announced the cross-border trucking pilot program in February, the department suggested Mexican trucks could begin crossing into the United States as early as April.
The Mexican government released a statement Tuesday saying it wants the program to begin July 15, and full implementation of NAFTA's cross-border trucking provisions to start within one year.
Mexico also said it wants the program implemented incrementally, with up to 25 carriers from each country gaining cross-border access every month through October.
"That must be the quickest they can move," said John Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. "They've been committed to accelerating the entrance of U.S. trucks into Mexico. Mexico is to be commended for moving ahead expeditiously."
The United States agreed to a July 15 start date at a trilateral conference in Arizona last week, Hill said.
Mexican trucks haven't been allowed to operate in this country since 1982, when U.S. motor carriers lost access to roads south of the border.
Under NAFTA, the United States, Mexico and Canada were to be open to truckers from all three countries by 2000. Years of legal and political battles have prevented that from happening.
Initially, Hill said, U.S. trucks were to gain access to Mexico six months after Mexican carriers were granted operating authority in the United States. On Monday, the Transportation Department issued a statement saying Mexican and U.S. trucks would gain access to one another's countries simultaneously.
Though more than 800 Mexican carriers have applied for permission to operate in the United States, only 16 American companies have requested similar access in Mexico.
Opposition toward the pilot program has been mounting on both sides of the border.
An influential chamber of commerce representing Mexican carriers — the Cámara Nacional de Autotransportes del Carga, also known as CANACAR — is calling for the program's suspension. The group says the program will increase transportation costs in Mexico and applies discriminatory regulations on its trucks.
"The Mexican truckers are worried that if this border opens, U.S. firms ... (will) simply take over the trucking industry in Mexico," said Jim Giermanski, a NAFTA expert with Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina and CEO of a firm specializing in cross-border security issues.
In the United States, the Teamsters union continues to lobby against cross-border trucking, saying it's a danger to U.S. motorists.
Those favoring opening the border have dismissed the argument as a thinly veiled opposition to greater competition, which would reduce costs for transportation and would increase North America's competitiveness.
Congressional leaders have proposed legislation that would suspend funding for the pilot program. President Bush this week vetoed a supplemental spending bill that included the legislation.
On Wednesday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved a bill that if approved would make major changes to the program. The legislation would allow a maximum of 1,000 Mexican trucks and passenger buses to have access to U.S. roads for up to three years.
"This bill limits the authority of the secretary of transportation to open the United States-Mexico border," Democratic committee Chairman James Oberstar of Minnesota said in a statement. "It allows the United States to live up to its commitments under the North American Free Trade Agreement while putting in place robust requirements and protections to safeguard travelers on our roads."
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meenat@express-news.net
What is Mexico waitng on,.....mordidas?
Remember when the clinton administration was selling the NAFTA bill of goods? They said if NAFTA passed it would solve the illegal immigration problem as they would all have jobs in their own country. Worked really well, didn’t it?
Related
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1808735/posts
Roadblocks for Mexican trucks in U.S. (Duncan Hunter - NAFTA Trucking Safety Act)
Waiting is good sometimes.
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
“Balancing” trade? What’s that supposed to mean? Wouldn’t you rather increase it?
I wonder what the ratio is in actual trucks. I suspect the American companies have a lot more trucks per company.
This effort could result in some significant savings. It is kind of pointless to have to ship goods to the border only to have them reloaded on a different truck that can operate in the other country.
I would however place some minimal language requirements on the commercial drivers. I spent two weeks in rural parts of Mexico last month, and even though I only know a handful of words in Spanish, I usually didn't have a lot of problems communicating basic things. However, if I needed to stop for directions I'd have been in serious trouble if it weren't for the other people on the trip that spoke more Spanish.
On an interesting side note, did you know that apparently due to some agricultural regulations your vehicle can be refused reentry into the United States if it has too much mud caked on it? US Customs actually made us drive back across the Rio Grande into Mexico to get our truck washed before they would allow us into the United States. They did also make us take some of the things out of the back and let them search through them. To be hones, the truck was really did have a pretty thick layer of mud on the sides.
I was on jury duty the week of 12/11/06 and one of my fellow jurors told me that her nephew was killed a year earlier by two illegals DRIVING their truck with FAULTY BRAKES to the BRAKE SHOP to be repaired when – surprise, surprise — the BRAKES FAILED AND THEY KILLED HER NEPHEW. I guess these MORONS thought they were back in Mexico where – in addition to driving DRUNK — they and their idiot friends do crap like that all the time. Can you say “Tijuana Taxi?” Can you say “TOW TRUCK?”
The driver got 4 years in prison and will be deported when he gets out.
Gotta wonder how long it will take him to sneak back in and kill someone else?
The stats indicate they are killing 12 American citizens each week, either with cars or via other criminal activity.
I can’t wait until the interstates start filling up with Mexican truckers on tight deadlines – and I do mean DEADlines – hurtling at carloads of unsuspecting native-born American citizens – all 387 of us.
Do you suppose this crap might stop if one of Bush’s daughters became a victim?
Of course, unlike the rest of us, they are driven to their endless round of parties by an armed SS detail, which eliminates the risk that they will be tempted to drive drunk themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_zCpQZ-H94
From Neidermeyer, yesterday:
I delivered to Laredo once ,, left my trailer at a locked yard, I wouldn’t dare take a truck into Nuevo Laredo ... let me count the reasons why..
1.) drug lords own the police
2.) can you really trust federales that drive as their police car a car stolen in the US?
3.) even 1 pistol cartridge can get you thrown in jail forever
4.) their jails aren’t pretty
5.) you will need a wad of cash for bribes
6.) the bad guys will know that and go after you for the cash...
7.) just the value of your fuel will get you killed much less 18 tires at $275 each
8.) roads aren’t marked
9.) maps are incorrect
10.) you could end up waiting days or weeks to get your load unloaded ,, all the while you stay awake 24/7 guarding your load and truck...
11.) if robbed the police will not help
12.) if your truck is sabotaged you have no choice but to walk away (fly home) your insurance won’t pay squat because you were stupid enough to go there..
Taking even one load into Mexico (at best) means bankruptcy if you run your own truck.. this is a 1 way street... another terrible decision based on global dreams..
It's a BS ploy by a select few in government in the US and Mexico.
I wonder how many of the Mexican trucks are owned by American trucking companies.
I'm SURE they will not become an instant medium to transport invader aliens or drugs.
Nope, nuthin' but good ole Wal Mart crap from China in those containers.
(Of course if they 'only' carry legimate cargoes of Chinese wares directly from Mexican ports to our Wal Marts, the only people destroyed will be American blue collar longshoreman and truckers, so no big deal, right Jorge Bush?)
When NAFTA was being pushed by the first Bush administration the owner of the shop I worked for warned us that the doors would close if it passed. He was right, the company was gone less than a year after passage.
I talked to that former boss about a year back. He said they debated moving operations to mexico but the savings for a small company just wasn’t enough to keep them competitive.
It increased trade, didn't it?
If we had a wall on the border, that would have solved the illegal immigration problem.
“Since the Mexican trucks will enjoy ‘priviledged’ status they will not be inspected for contents.
I’m SURE they will not become an instant medium to transport invader aliens or drugs. “
God, this makes me sick.
Where did you read that?
Even the Mexicans are bitching about NAFTA, they realize it was a big failure.
Nothing is going to solve the illegal immigration problem until we elect a REAL AMERICAN president who wants to solve it. We haven't had one of them in many years.
Only a protectionist could think trade was a lose-lose proposition.
There are protectionists all over that think they can live off other people's import tax hikes --they're crazy. The protectionists in Latin America cry about all the high paying jobs that NAFTA's supposed to be sending to the US, even while we're hearing this "giant sucking sound" sending them down south.
What's got me baffled is how they explain the fact that both north and south have got higher incomes and employment rates.
They're protectionists, they don't have to explain facts. Not to mention they can't recognize them either.
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