"Brakes? We don' need no steenkin' brakes."
Posted on 03/08/2011 11:05:08 AM PST by MissTed
President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón agreed Thursday to remove most restrictions on trucking across the U.S.-Mexico border, sparking furor from the Teamsters and raising concerns for truckers on both sides of the border — for different reasons.
The American Trucking Association praised the announcement, saying it will promote trade. The Teamsters and certain trucking companies oppose the deal, saying it sacrifices American jobs when unemployment is high so that big business can save money partly by hiring cheaper drivers.
The Obama-Calderón plan comes 17 years after passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which permitted cross-border trucking. Implementation efforts have faced stiff challenges, including lawsuits, over the years from unions and some lawmakers. Critics have cited what they see as environmental and safety deficiencies among Mexican truckers.
“It’s completely importing poverty. It hurts the workers, their families,” said Todd Mendez, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 683 in San Diego. “We will fight tooth and nail and exhaust all resources to fight this bill back. We have no choice but to preserve jobs for Americans.”
Economist Gary Hufbauer sees the agreement as a sign that Obama is not intimidated by unions and expects the move to set a new course for foreign economic policy.
“We promised and we didn’t deliver,” said Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. “This has been a big issue in trade relations between the U.S. and Mexico.”
After years of trying to establish the U.S.-Mexico trucking program, the two nations’ governments launched a pilot program in 2007. The Obama administration shut down that project in 2009, and the Mexican government responded with tariffs on dozens of American products — worth about $2.4 billion a year — and similar restrictions on U.S. trucks.
The latest compromise requires congressional approval, which could come as early as summer. It would create another pilot program in exchange for gradual cancellation of all the tariffs. Mexican truckers would need to meet several requirements, such as passing English and safety tests and proving that their trucks meet designated environmental standards.
U.S. and Mexican officials are still working out a range of details before the measure is presented to Congress.
Currently, trucks carry merchandise that makes up more than 70 percent of U.S.-Mexico trade, according to the American Trucking Association. The port in Laredo, Texas, was the busiest in 2009 with nearly 1.4 million northbound truck crossings. Otay Mesa ranked second, with more than 684,000, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Cross-border trucking would increase trade between the two countries partly because goods would move more quickly since they would not have to be unloaded and reloaded in the border region, Hufbauer said.
At border ports of entry, security inspections of commercial trucks will not change, said Ralph DeSio, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in San Diego.
“We are going to continue to do what we need to do to process trucks for entrance into the country,” he said.
For American companies that routinely send trucks to the border, including some with permits that allow their drivers to go up to 30 miles into Mexico, the new agreement brings worries of lost jobs and increased traffic along the border. They are concerned about competitors undercutting them during the bidding process, in part by paying lower wages to Mexican drivers.
“Currently, they bring their freight to us and we take it up to L.A. or other cities,” said Brandon Davis, vice president of San Diego-based Davis Trucking. “If they are going to be able to go wherever they want, then it will kill U.S. trucking companies.”
Davis has a permit to enter the border area of Mexico for pickups. He also takes loads from Mexican truckers and completes the U.S. delivery route. The cross-border business makes up one-quarter to one-third of Davis’ bottom line.
Davis Trucking employs 51 people and runs 75 vehicles from several locations, including Calexico and Los Angeles. The company operates three to five routes in and out of Mexico every day, moving everything from Bimbo Bakery goods to Sony products.
While the agreement would allow U.S. trucks to also transport goods into Mexico, many truckers and the Teamsters said it is an unrealistic and unfair trade-off. Mexico is too dangerous for American truckers, they contend.
Mexican truck companies are focused on the often-prickly binational politics and how U.S. truckers in Mexico might impact their business.
Rafael Godinez Beltran, owner of Transportes Rafa in Mexicali, participated in the pilot program that ran from 2007 to 2009. Now, he is skeptical about the latest deal, although he sees potential long-term benefits.
He had purchased new trucks for the original pilot program, paid the application fees and met safety requirements.
“I am going to need to analyze it and know how it’s going to function to see if we would participate,” Godinez Beltran said. “It would open the market for work, but I’m going to wait and see if it can get beyond the politics.”
You’d better up your auto insurance because they won’t have
any!
It does help screw unions.
I think the long term plan is to ship all the China containers to Mexico and then via truck into the US.
Bypassing the California ILA longshoremen goons.
Obama...destroying America one bill at at time.
Excuse my french but F him...
I am not familiar with this issue, so it seem to me strange Obama is dissing his best friend the unions.
Could it be because he knows American trucking is going to be hit hard by expensive gas?
What could go wrong here?!
Since when did people remember that high unemployment is the foundation by which nations fall apart? Those who work cannot indefinitely support those who are unemployed, this should be Economics 101 material, but then again, it appears some politicians lack economic common sense.
I can see the headlines now.....Mexican truck with no brakes kills 35 children on a school bus.
"Brakes? We don' need no steenkin' brakes."
ATA letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
April 30, 2010
The Honorable Ray LaHood
Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Mr. Secretary:
The American Trucking Associations and the trucking industry have long recognized the importance of intermodal transportation and the need for all modes of freight transportation to work together for America. However, we believe that recent statements from your Department suggesting that freight rail and marine highways replace trucks on our nation’s highways is not only factually incorrect, it can breed irresponsible policy.
Here are a few of the comments we find misleading to the public:
” A key part of the administration’s livability program is getting “gas-guzzling trucks off the road.”
“ “The lion’s share (of TIGER grants) went into our freight rail system because it takes trucks off the road - it takes gas guzzling trucks off the road.”
“ The TIGER grants went to freight rail improvements and should help “get trucks off the road and unclog some of our highways.”
“ DOT policy has “paid a lot of attention to the freight rail companies” to both expand passenger train service and draw freight off highways. “We’ve made a huge investment in their opportunity to build capacity.”
“ The DOT is working with ports “again, to take trucks off the road and to really utilize the marine highways.”
“ “A marine highway will get trucks off the road and clean up the air.”
more....
http://www.joc.com/%5bprimary-term%5d/ata-letter-transportation-secretary-ray-lahood
And some folks wonder why this little independent carrier worries about Obama.
It’s getting very crowded under Barry’s bus.
As the church lady on SNL said, “How convenient!”
Now, the illegals, contraband and drugs can be brought into the US by truck instead of across the desert by coyote and mule trains, which is what this agreement is really all about.
President Obama, protecting American jobs, just not for Americans.
....As America spirals downward to Third World Status.....
Once again the American people are being damaged by their own government. This careless attitude on the part of the leadership class is so bad as to approach a conscious, willful disregard of the welfare of the American people.
Really, then why spend all that money making the canal wide enough for super freighters.
ISBP Weekly Blotter - February 24 - March 2
Reported on February 27, 2011
Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 1,216 pounds of marijuana, a tractor-trailer, and arrested a USC at the traffic checkpoint near Falfurrias, Texas. The subject presented himself for inspection and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the vehicle. A subsequent search by agents uncovered the marijuana.
Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 4,708 pounds of marijuana, a tractor-trailer, and arrested two nationals of Mexico at the traffic checkpoint near Falfurrias, Texas. The subjects presented themselves for inspection and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the vehicle. A scan using non-intrusive inspection technology revealed anomalies in the trailer and a subsequent search by agents uncovered the marijuana.
Reported on March 2, 2011
Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 4,479 pounds of marijuana, a tractor-trailer, and arrested a USC at the traffic checkpoint near Nogales, Arizona. A Border Patrol canine alerted to the vehicle and a scan using non-intrusive inspection technology revealed anomalies within the vehicle. A subsequent search by agents uncovered the marijuana.
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