Posted on 09/11/2007 5:09:04 PM PDT by ruination
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roadways, rekindling a more than decade-old trade dispute with Mexico.
By a 74-24 vote, the Senate approved a proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., prohibiting the Transportation Department from spending money on a North American Free Trade Agreement pilot program giving Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways.
The proposal is part of a $106 billion transportation and housing spending bill that the Senate hopes to vote on later this week. The House approved a similar provision to Dorgan's in July as part of its version of the transportation spending bill.
Supporters of Dorgan's amendment argued the trucks are not yet proven safe. Opponents said the U.S. is applying tougher standards to Mexican trucks than to Canadian trucks and failing to live up to its NAFTA obligations.
Until last week, Mexican trucks were restricted to driving within a commercial border zone that stretched about 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexican boundary, 75 miles in Arizona. One truck has traveled deep into the U.S. interior as part of the pilot program.
Blocking the trucks would help Democrats curry favor with organized labor, an important ally for the 2008 presidential elections.
"Why the urgency? Why not stand up for the (truck) standards that we've created and developed in this country?" Dorgan asked.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who drafted a Republican alternative to Dorgan's amendment, said the attempt to block the trucks appeared to be about limiting competition and may amount to discrimination against Mexico.
"I would never allow an unsafe truck on our highways, particularly Texas highways," he said.
Under NAFTA, Mexico can seek retaliation against the U.S. for failing to adhere to the treaty's requirements, including retaining tariffs on goods that the treaty eliminates, said Sidney Weintraub, a professor emeritus at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin.
The trucking program allows up to 100 Mexican carriers to send their trucks on U.S. roadways for delivery and pickup of cargo. None can carry hazardous material or haul cargo between U.S. points.
So far, the Department of Transportation has granted a single Mexican carrier, Transportes Olympic, access to U.S. roads after a more than decade-long dispute over the NAFTA provision opening up the roadways.
One of the carrier's trucks crossed the border in Laredo, Texas last week and delivered its cargo in North Carolina on Monday and was expected to return to Mexico late this week after a stop in Decatur, Ala.
The transportation bill is S. 1789.
Perhaps it would be helpful if you read the works of David Ricardo in regard to the benefits of trade. Also, it would be of benefit to you to realize that conservative economist Thomas Sowell agrees with me on this issue.
While I realize that yes, this is a fallacy of "appeal to authority", please look at his works in the issue of free trade, which are far better than what I could do, before you dismiss the free trade argument.
The claim is self evident. I am comparing the added tasks of unloading and loading to the alternative of not performing these tasks. If it was efficient to load and unload, there would not be a debate about Mexican truckers coming into the US.
We don’t have the benefit of reading all of Cornyn’s remarks on this issue. It almost sounds like he is referring to the legality of the ban and whether it would be upheld in court.
It would be interesting to see what his “Republican alternative” bill proposed.
NAFTA is not a treaty.
And when I am run off the road by a truck registered in Guadalajara, I imagine that I might have to drive there to file my claim. Yes, I can’t wait until I have to file my first claim with a Mexican “insurance company”. I’m sure I would die of old age before they opened my letter.
Agreed, but I do think it is time we the tax payers started demanding that we import third world professors and let them bid on jobs, the one that will work for the lowest wages get the position. No more tenure, the bidding is open word wide each year. So what if the applicant cannot speak English, it's educational of the student to learn to understand him. :)
Man, Lavoris, Listerine, Scope... you’re still going to have a nasty taste in your mouth. I can see you walking around, and talking to people with your hand in front of your mouth, for a couple of months at least.
I don’t care about the politics involved in this. I don’t want a bunch of MX truckers driving 100,000 pound rigs on our U.S. highways.
BWAAAAHAHAHAAAAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAAAAAA!
That sure worked out well, didn't it? Another example of wild success by our corrupt Federal Government. Feh.
>>If they live, and after they’ve paid the mexican police protection money to return to the US border<<
Sometimes you can’t tell if it’s the police or a bunch of bandits with “POLICIA” t-shirts and submachine guns. I have run into such a group on a Mexican highway, and I still don’t know if they were police or not.
Hell, considering the level of police corruption, you might get off easier if they were bandits. Like Bob Dylan said, “To live outside the law you must be honest.”
“The claim is self evident.”
Fair argument.
“If it was efficient to load and unload, there would not be a debate about Mexican truckers coming into the US.”
Being part of full implementation of NAFTA, the issue would indeed still be on the table.
Do you know anything about commercial transportation? Trucks are loaded and unloaded every day. It's called "logistics".
Concur. See my U.S. Customs & Border Protection/NAFTA Section on my FR Profile page. I'm 100% in Duncan Hunter's corner in this fight and 100% against the Bush Administration.
“Perhaps it would be helpful if you read the works of David Ricardo in regard to the benefits of trade”
I don’t think Ricardo or Adam Smith ever figured on:
1) Lobbyists for multi billion dollar international corporations
2) Whore Senators who would wholesale America for money.
3) The invasion of America by 20 million illiterate slobs
4) A President who will not protect our borders, and encourages illegal immigration.
LMBO!!
I’ve followed this issue for almost 50 years. Every prediction that has eminated from the Birch Society regarding free trade has come true on schedule. Common sense really does work, if you give it a chance.
Sowell is minor league, and no one would ever quote him if he were not our top Black Intellectual.
BTW, concerning your tag-line, rather than advocating "fair" trade, whatever that is, I suggest advocating "substantially balanced" trade. What's killing us is the trade imbalance, the $800 billion trade deficit.
“Sometimes you can’t tell if it’s the police or a bunch of bandits with “POLICIA” t-shirts and submachine guns. I have run into such a group on a Mexican highway, and I still don’t know if they were police or not.
Hell, considering the level of police corruption, you might get off easier if they were bandits.”
I have it licked......I don’t go to Mexico :-)
There IS no free trade. See post 355.
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