Senate votes to ban Mexican trucks

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | Sep. 11, 2007 | Suzanne Gamboa

[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.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“It doesn’t instill confidence in the American populace when the head of Homeland Security states that an attack will happen at some point”

And if it can be proven the attack was due to open borders, all heck will break loose.

[governmentstillsucks]

They have........Americans are pissed!!

And for good reason. I refuse to sell my birthright for a plate of cheap lettuce, regardless of what political hacks who only understand the language of K-Street have to say about it.

[Infidel1571]

“...for a plate of cheap lettuce”

At least they could offer us some tasty pottage, instead. ;)

[governmentstillsucks]

And if it can be proven the attack was due to open borders, all heck will break loose.

At one time, I believed that al-Qaeda was coming through the southern border, mainly because of the writings of Paul L. Williams and the like. The claims turned out to be bogus--but then came the Fort Dix Six. While the idea of terrorists coming through the Mexican border was largely a myth at one time, it seems to have been transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is why I say, and have said, that immigration is the issue of our time; so many things revolve around it, and so much is at stake.

[TomasUSMC]

Under NAFTA, Mexico can seek retaliation against the U.S

---

PLEASE PLEASE DO

The sooner NAFTA is broken, the faster the U.S.A. will heal.

[governmentstillsucks]

At least they could offer us some tasty pottage, instead. ;)

Pottage? How about some nice Mexican pottery instead? It's all psychoceramic, after all.

[SGCOS]

Teamster thugs elated.

ordinary citizens like myself elated too!!!

[governmentstillsucks]

The sooner NAFTA is broken, the faster the U.S.A. will heal.

Glad to see you again, Tomas. You and I have corresponded in the past, though I was under a different handle at the time.

Healing? We certainly need it, don't we? As a former Marine, you probably understand what defending a nation--and what that really means--is about. We aren't working for the best interest of an idea or a proposition; we're working for our land and our people, i.e., Americans.

[governmentstillsucks]

ordinary citizens like myself elated too!!!

Yes, we unwashed proletariat scum can have opinions that differ from the RNC. Ain't it great?

[moonman]

I am an ex-trucker. I could care less if Mexicans hauled the freight throughout America. There is a good chance they would be more courteous and responsible then 70% of the truckers we presently have.

[Saundra Duffy]

Best news I’ve heard all day. What I couldn’t understand was how the gnarled freeways and roads in California were going to accommodate these trucks. We’re already at gridlock.

[governmentstillsucks]

You don't get it. I'll speak for myself..You're trying to make this a racist issue.

And I'll speak in your defense: race baiting is a skill championed by liberal Democrats. So I guess I have to ask myself, and those loyal to a sense of transnationalism, "Why all the fuss in trading with Iran?"

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>I assumed that any checks on entering “this country” would be done by US law enforcement.

I don’t get the “either/or.” If this ban is vetoed or fails to pass the Conference Committee, then we won’t have any sort of legal requirement in force to inspect the trucks, either.<<

If Mexican drivers are allowed to drive in this program, there will be no real driver records for US law enforcement to check. Mexican police take bribes rather than filing a record of a traffic violation. If you don’t believe me, ask any Mexican how it works.

If I were president, I would veto it because of the appalling amount of pork in the bill, but it looks like there is a veto-proof majority in both houses.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>I could care less if Mexicans hauled the freight throughout America. There is a good chance they would be more courteous and responsible then 70% of the truckers we presently have.<<

Apparently you don’t have experiece driving on Mexican highways. We have some bad drivers here, but nothing compared to Mexico.

[governmentstillsucks]

Apparently you don’t have experiece driving on Mexican highways. We have some bad drivers here, but nothing compared to Mexico.

As an American on Mexican highways? Outside of Free Man's Land? If the roads and bad drivers aren't enough, eighteen-year-old federales with machine guns certainly are.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>If the roads and bad drivers aren’t enough, eighteen-year-old federales with machine guns certainly are.<<

You got that right, but the federales are not the only ones toting machine guns.

[hocndoc]

Yes, the Senator said this would be the first time that the law required inspections every 3 months and confirmation that the drivers meet regulations.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“This is why I say, and have said, that immigration is the issue of our time; so many things revolve around it, and so much is at stake”

To me it is #1, or America is finished.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

>>Yes, the Senator said this would be the first time that the law required inspections every 3 months and confirmation that the drivers meet regulations.<<

There is no no way to confirm "that the drivers meet regulations!" There are no driver records for Mexicans! The senator is full of sh**. They will ask Mexico if the driver has any traffic violations, and Mexico won't find any!