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Protesting Mexican Trucks on American Highways
Several U.S./Mexico border crossings in Texas and California recently saw American truckers protesting a pilot program to allow up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to haul their cargo anywhere in the United States, a move also opposed by the Teamsters Union and the Sierra Club. The program is designed to test whether Mexican trucks would be able to operate on U.S. highways safely. Attorneys sued the Federal government on behalf of the Teamsters, Sierra Club, and the Ralph Nader founded watch-dog group Public Citizen to stop the program. Government lawyers argued the program is a necessary part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the trucks would meet U.S. regulations. A federal appeals court ruled the Bush administration could move ahead with the pilot program.
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NAFTA by PowerPointSamurai
Obviously there were aspects of NAFTA I missed. I assumed that the NAFTA agreement allowed free trade in North America, including this type of thing. I could see restricting Mexican trucks from operating point-to-point in the US, but they certainly should be allowed to haul to/from Mexico to anywhere in NA in the spirit of the agreement. That said, they would be held to the same highway safety standards and emissions requirements of the states they haul through. I know some people in the transportation industry. If you haul through 3 arbitrary states, you have to meet their axle weight requirements and highway regulations—including emissions. So on that ground, the Sierra Club and the safety concerns should be moot.
As for the Teamsters Union, sounds like another World is Flat example to me, and they need to figure out how they will compete rather than waste energy obfuscating and making excuses. Again, however, the Mexican trucks generally shouldn’t be competition for them hauling back and forth within the US, because otherwise they’d have to have a base of operations in the US to remain profitable, implying visas, green cards, etc.
I see Canadian trucks on the road all the time. Why would they raise this as an issue, but not the Canadians? The easy answer is racism, which is not what I’m implying, but what…lower standards, cheaper wages?
If it’s lower standards, State Troopers LOVE writing lucrative tickets for bad brakes, over weight limits, speeding, etc. I can’t see why a Mexican truck would be exempt from say, Texas highway standards, whereas an Arizona one would not.