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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (165622)	7/29/2001 11:43:33 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769669

Just to close the loop, this is the second half of the Tucson editorial on Mexican trucks. Tucson, Arizona Sunday, 29 July 2001 Allegedly unsafe trucks This the second of a two-part series of editorials on Mexican trucking Since the North American Free Trade Agreement passed in 1993, trade between Mexico and the United States grew from $81 billion to $246 billion in 2000. The American Trucking Association says that 80 percent of that trade moved by truck. It also moved with unnecessary delays and expense to both U.S. and Mexican carriers. The Senate's 70-30 vote Thursday on a bill that imposes stringent requirements on Mexican truckers virtually assures that the delays will continue for years. The bill is the monstrous creature of the Teamsters union and its protectionist cohorts. The free trade agreement called for unrestricted trucking north and south of the Mexican border by Jan. 1, 2000. This was to be done over a five-year period. The agreement is specific in requiring all carriers to abide by host-country safety requirements. The hypocritical Clinton administration - yielding to Teamster pressure - delayed implementation of the free trade flow. The pretense for delay was the argument that Mexican trucks were unsafe. President Bush properly ordered the implementation of the NAFTA provisions after an arbitration panel ruled the United States was violating NAFTA in barring Mexican trucks from entering the country. Today, Mexican trucks are not permitted to travel more than 20 miles north of the border. This also applies to U.S. trucks, which cannot venture more than 20 miles south of the border. Because of these restrictions, both U.S. and Mexican carriers are forced to use a clumsy system for moving goods. Duane Acklie, chairman of the American Trucking Association, testifying before a Senate committee on July 18, described this system. It requires three drivers and three tractors to cross the border either way. The U.S. trucker hauls his load to the U.S. side of the border. At this point, an intermediate carrier - called a drayage hauler - takes the load across the border and meets the Mexican trucker, who collects the trailer and proceeds to his destination. The drayage hauler then scoots back to the U.S. side. The need for three trucks where one would suffice creates a logjam and major delays. Acklie also said truckers "do not invest $100,000 in equipment to perform short drayage operations. They simply cannot afford to do so. Therefore, the trucks crossing the border today are not the same Mexican trucks that would operate in the United States once NAFTA's trucking provisions are implemented." Drayage trucks usually are old and somewhat unreliable. Purveyors of the anti-Mexican truck hysteria often cite the statistic that 41 percent of Mexican trucks fail safety inspections. That statistic, however, includes only drayage trucks. In February of this year, Public Citizen, Ralph Nader's self-styled anti-free trade think tank, released a lengthy indictment of Mexican trucking and its allegedly abysmal safety record. The report is widely cited by those who oppose free trade. The report mentions "drayage" only once. It dismisses the argument that implementation of NAFTA would eliminate drayage haulers. "The thrust of this argument is that companies are using older trucks, called 'drayage' trucks, to make the short runs from maquiladora plants located in Mexico near the border. However, many of the Mexican trucks crossing the border actually come from Mexico's interior. In addition, opening the border would mean that the worst trucks would be permitted new access in addition to the hypothetically safe trucks presumed to exist in the interior -- meaning a large number of extremely unsafe trucks would still have access to the United States." The report writer profoundly misrepresents the role of drayage haulers. They are not used only to ferry goods to maquiladora plants. As for unsafe trucks having access to the border, this is an unfounded assertion. A DOT Inspector General report says that more inspectors will be needed and too many trucks today crossing the border fail inspection. Acklie says this is no surprise as these are drayage trucks. Acklie testified that his organization "is concerned that attacks on our Mexican counterparts are more based on an incomplete understanding of motor carrier safety and prejudice toward Mexican carriers, instead of being based on hard facts related to safety." The Senate bill ignores the facts of Mexican trucking. In so doing, it thwarts free trade and advances the protectionist agenda.