Not quite Free Trade?
The Trucker News Service reports:
EL PASO, Texas (Feb. 23, 2007) — U.S. trucks will for the first time be allowed to make deliveries in Mexico under a year-long pilot program that expands cross-border trucking operations with Mexico, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced today during a visit to truck inspection facilities in El Paso, Texas.
U.S. trucks will get to make deliveries into Mexico while a select group of Mexican trucking companies will be allowed to make deliveries beyond the 20- to 25-mile commercial zones currently in place along the Southwest border.
Peters said the new demonstration program was designed to simplify a process that currently requires Mexican truckers to stop and wait for U.S. trucks to arrive and transfer cargo. She said this process wastes money, drives up the cost of goods, and leaves trucks loaded with cargo idling inside U.S. borders. She added that under current rules, U.S. trucks are not allowed into Mexico because the U.S. refused to implement provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that would have permitted safe cross-border trucking.
“The United States has never shied away from opportunities to compete, to open new markets and to trade with the world. Now that safety and security programs are in place, the time has come for us to move forward on this longstanding promise with Mexico,” Peters said.
It’s not a new issue, and free transport of goods was a basic part of NAFTA. In December 2001, NewsMax was all a-twitter about this. The Arizona Republic reported in 2004:
Trucking companies, which have waged a 22-year battle to win access to U.S. highways, say they face unresolved tax issues, new challenges by U.S. lawmakers and a general uncertainty ahead of U.S. elections.“Since 1982 we have been told, ‘Next year, next year,’ ” said Raúl O’Farrill, a Phoenix lawyer and expert in transportation law who moderated a discussion on trucking at the Border Trade Alliance conference in Mexico City on Thursday. “This is creating even more frustration.” advertisement
The whole thing has been watered down as a “pilot program” involving 100 trucking companies… the big boys that are basically Freightliner and the other international companies under a Mexican label.
A “select group” going one direction, and open borders the other direction doesn’t sound like “free trade” to me. The trucks working in the U.S. will, of course, have to meet U.S. trucking regulations, and this is limited to 100 trucking companies
Of course, there’s a lot of “Mexican trucks are unsafe” stories making the rounds… usually from people talking about farm trucks and local haulers.
Peterbilts are built by Pedro.
As are Freightliner, Volvo, Kenniworth, DINA etc. Most of the big rigs on the road right now are Mexican-built, so it’s not the trucks, it’s the drivers. And, yeah… Mexican drivers are nuts, but their truckers are better than most.
mexfiles.net 
The safety issue is a red herring…long haul Mexican trucks are fine. NAFTA seems to be limping toward its promise. I was happy to see Mexico recently lifted its restriction on importing used vehicles from the US…that will benefit a lot of lower and middle class mexicanos, as the price of a used car (way too high) should come down. Besides, it was such a hassle to sneak and bribe a used car into Mexico before!
But, dang, it used to make it easy to pick out the narcos among the nacos. The narcos had new buicks. The nacos old Chevys.
With the vote to cut funding of the Mexican program, we’ve also cut funding for about 400 state and federal truck inspectors hired to look after the Mexican trucks but also keep the American and Canadian carriers in line.
Is this about safety? Putting the public at risk with the reward being keeping a few professional Mexican driver off the highways?
It opens the U.S. to retaliatory tariffs also since the U.S . is again violating it’s end of the agreement, Mexico is entitled to, among other things reinstiute tariffs on goods and services.
Watch the price of your new car or refrigerator go through the roof.
And let us not forget the $20 billion dollar penalty the arbitration board levied against the U.S. for failing to hold up it’s end of the bargain.
But hey, $20 billion to keep a handful of Mexicans out of the country? A bargain to the white right!