Posted on 03/04/2009 4:15:06 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
Buried in the $410 billion catch-all appropriations bill now before the U.S. Senate is a provision that would end a program that has allowed Mexican truck drivers to deliver goods to destinations inside the United States.
A provision in the original North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 was supposed to allow U.S. and Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods in each others country. But opposition from the Teamsters union and old-fashioned prejudice against Mexicans has derailed implementation of the provision.
Under current restrictions, goods coming into the United States from Mexico by truck must be unloaded inside the commercial zone within 20 miles or so of either side of the border and transferred to U.S.-owned trucks for final delivery. U.S. goods going to Mexico face the same inefficient and unnecessary restrictions.
The Bush administration established a pilot program that allows certain Mexican trucking companies that meet U.S. safety and other standards to deliver goods directly to U.S. destinations, while the Mexican government has agreed to allow reciprocal access to its market. But the Democratic Congress and the new Democratic president have vowed to finally kill the program, and the provision inside the appropriations bill will probably deliver the final blow.
As I argued in an article in 2007, the Mexican trucks that have been allowed to operate in the United States under the pilot program have actually had a better safety record than U.S. trucks.
As I noted in the article, and it still applies today: The real objection they have to Mexican trucks making deliveries to U.S. cities is not that they are unsafe, but that those trucks are driven by Mexicans. In the eyes of congressional leaders, driving while Mexican remains an unacceptable public hazard.
Sounds more like a "safety issue for American truckers" delivering inside "Mexico-Afganistan".
Though I never paticularly supported this program, pinching off trade seems like a good way to get us out of this economic morass.
Sounds good to me.
It’s bad enough being on the highway with drunken illegal aliens.
Whenever I hear of someone who has been killed in a truck accident, I pray to God that the trucker is American so that the victim is magically brought back to life.
The Party of the Workin' Man...until a more important interest group comes along.
That’s a pretty deceitful headline.
“I was...born in East L.A.,
“Born in East L.A....”
What about "driving while stupid?"
Well, this is one (and only one so far) that this ignorant administration might be doing right.
Flat tires from nails, falling lumber, crop crates,...
I'm assuming the 18-wheelers from Mexico have their act together better than the 50 million illegals already here?
/mark for tonight.
Thanks.
How could that be possible? Are motorists that are killed by American truck drivers immortal? :p
Drat. I was hoping from the headline that a little traffic relief would be created on the 5 freeway in SoCal.
Obama seems to be tossing a doggie treat to Teamsters here, but I suspect he will more than make up for it on other issues like amnesty.
I have no doubt
Ping!
Yeah but that’s the tactic employed by those who can’t get support for what they want any other way.
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