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Politics : ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION THE FIGHT TO KEEP OUR DEMOCRACY -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2312)9/1/2007 8:08:13 PM
From: Ann Corrigan  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 3197
 
Mexico trucks to roll on U.S. highways

John Crawley
Sep 1, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration can proceed with a plan to open the U.S. border to long haul Mexican trucks as early as next week after an appeals court rejected a bid by labor, consumer and environmental interests to block the initiative.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco late on Friday denied an emergency petition sought by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and consumer group Public Citizen to halt the start of a one-year pilot program that was approved by Congress after years of legal and political wrangling.

The Transportation Department welcomed the decision and said in a statement that allowing more direct shipments from Mexico will benefit U.S. consumers.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement approved broader access for ground shipments from both countries but the Clinton administration never complied with the trucking provision. A special tribunal ordered the Bush administration to do so in 2001.

"This is the wrong decision for working men and women," Jim Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, said in a statement after the court ruling. "We believe this program clearly breaks the law." The Teamsters represents truckers that would be affected by the change.

The emergency stay was sought on grounds the administration's pilot program had not satisfied the U.S. Congress' requirements on safety and other issues. But the appeals court ruled otherwise.

SAFETY ASPECTS

The administration plans to start the program on September 6. Transportation Department officials hope to receive final clearance early next week from the department's inspector general's office, which is reviewing its safety aspects, and finalize details with Mexican authorities.

The Mexican government must grant reciprocal access to U.S. trucks under NAFTA. That provision is not expected to be a problem, regulators said.

Mexican trucks operating in the United States have for years been restricted to U.S. points near certain large border crossings where their goods are transferred to trucks owned by U.S. firms.

Under the pilot program, Mexican long haul trucking companies that have met safety, licensing, and other U.S. requirements will be allowed to operate their rigs throughout the country. Proponents say this will reduce costs and speed up shipments.

Trucking regulators said in a court filing the goal is to gradually accommodate 100 Mexican trucking companies by the end of the pilot program, or roughly 540 large trucks.

But opponents said those figures do not reflect the number of companies that could seek access to U.S. roads if the pilot is successful, which they said raises safety concerns.

"This (pilot) program is basically a show trial. They haven't provided notice up front about who will participate. You just don't know what the program will look like," said Bonnie Robin-Vergeer, attorney for Public Citizen.

Public Citizen and the Teamsters still plan to proceed with a lawsuit they filed in federal court, challenging the Mexican truck program on broader grounds. That case will not likely be decided until next year.

Trucks from Canada have no operating restrictions in the United States.<



To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2312)9/14/2007 2:45:28 PM
From: goldworldnet  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3197
 
Hoffa: Bush creating North American Union
Teamsters boss: Mexican trucks part of 'master plan' for 'super-government'

Posted: September 14, 2007 - By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

worldnetdaily.com

Saying he is convinced "the Bush administration has a master plan to erase all borders and to have a super-government in North America," James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, celebrated the Senate's 75-23 vote Tuesday night to block the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project.

In an exclusive interview with WND, Hoffa argued that the Bush administration push to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. is symptomatic of a larger administration plan advanced by multi-national corporations to create a European Union-style regional 'super-government' in North America.

"Congress has now spoken out and said Mexican trucks cannot come into the United States until they meet our standards," Hoffa told WND.

He noted the Senate seconded the House's overwhelming 411-3 vote to pass the Safe Roads Act of 2007, a bill also targeted to block the Mexican truck project.

"We're very excited about the Senate vote," Hoffa told WND. "We worked very hard on it. We thought we already had this Mexican truck demonstration project stopped three times before this year, and every time the administration comes right back trying to press this idea of opening the borders to unsafe Mexican trucks."

WND asked Hoffa if he thought Bush would carry out his threat to veto the Department of Transportation funding bill in order to kill the amendment de-funding the truck project.

"I just cannot imagine President Bush vetoing a whole major transportation bill," Hoffa answered. "This is only one amendment to this tremendous bill which includes needed funds to repair highway infrastructure and prevent more bridges like the one in Minneapolis on Interstate 35W from collapsing.

"Everybody who's looked at this knows that the Mexican trucks do not meet our standards," Hoffa argued. "Mexico doesn't have drug testing, they don't have mandatory physicals, they don't have the written test, they don't have the proficiency in English, they don't have a reliable national database.

"For us to lower our standards for Mexico is ridiculous," he continued. "The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration did not demonstrate to the American people or to Congress that we could ensure that allowing Mexican trucks into the U.S. would be safe. It was going to endanger people, it was going to endanger national security, and it was going to endanger good jobs."

Why did Hoffa think the Bush administration was so insistent on pressing forward with the Mexican truck demonstration project?

"President Bush has been determined to jam through this Mexican truck demonstration project because of big business pressure and pressure from President Calderon in Mexico," he answered directly. "Big business wants cheap trucking so they can make more money.

"Unfortunately, you get what you pay for," Hoffa continued. "Just look at all the problems we have had with China – toothpaste with anti-freeze in it, bad dog food, lead paint on the toys for our children.

"You have to have standards here,' Hoffa insisted. "We have standards in America. The American trucker has to be careful. He can't get a ticket for drunk driving, even in his own private car. He has to be drug tested.

"Now they're saying we should waive all these standards and not apply them to the Mexican trucker and the Mexican trucking company?' Hoffa asked. "It doesn't make sense.

"But if you want the real answer," Hoffa explained, "it's about money, and it's about the pressure of these big companies wanting to get this Mexican truck deal done now, because they realize that Bush is a lame duck and they figure that if they don't get this done now, they're not going to get this done with a Democratic president in the White House."

As WND reported, at the recent Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America third summit held in Montebello, Quebec, Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ridiculed the idea that SPP might result in the creation of a North American Union or NAFTA Superhighways.

Hoffa disagreed.

"I think the Bush administration has a master plan to erase all borders and to have a super-government in North America," he argued. "There's talk about mega-ports down in Mexico and superhighway toll roads built with foreign money right into the heart of America.

"I think those things are real and the Mexican truck demonstration project is just one piece in that larger puzzle,' Hoffa continued. "The Bush administration figures that once the Mexican trucks get started, the rest will be easy.

'I think that the whole plan of this Mexican truck demonstration project is part of a larger overall plan,' Hoffa contended. "The goal to basically erase that border so Mexican trucks can run across that border, unload trucks with no security, no supervision, and have them run all the way through from some port on the Pacific Ocean down in Mexico to Kansas City, Detroit and then to Montreal.

"I am convinced that the plan to create a North American Union is what is going on,' Hoffa asserted. "I am convinced big business wants that. Big business hates any types of standards. They don't want to have a minimum wage, they don't want to have safety protections, they don't want to have product inspections, they don't want environmental protection.

"Big business doesn't want to have anything slowing down commerce coming across the borders," he said. "And to do that, they have to erase all standards and they have to have one type of a North American government that would be over Canada, Mexico and the United States.

"I believe there is such a plan," he insisted. "I believe the Mexican truck demonstration project is part of it. I have seen enough to know that this is going on right now."

As WND has reported, Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton University economist who was former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview reported March 28 the U.S. was at risk of 40 million jobs being shipped out of the country to outsourcing in the next decade or two.

The Journal reported 40 million jobs lost would be more than double the total of U.S. workers employed in manufacturing today.

Blinder was a top adviser to President Clinton whose "free trade" views led him to strongly recommend the passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Hoffa was asked about Blinder's prediction.

"Look at the way India is opening up," he answered. "I recently made a trip to China. Unless we stop this with legislation and tariffs and duties on foreign goods, you are not going to have any jobs in this country except flipping hamburgers at McDonalds.

"We've got to stop this now," he continued. "Nothing is inevitable. The problem is that there is an agenda of these globalists and these free traders to ship every good job out of America. Any good job that pays good money, they can find somebody else to do it in India or China or in Hong Kong or wherever. We've got to say enough is enough.

"What about our children?" he asked. "Where are our children going to work? What is the future of this country if there are no good jobs here?"

Hoffa then turned to national security concerns he has about outsourcing.

"We are now at the point where we are farming out technology, we're farming out the manufacturing of airplanes," Hoffa argued. "We're outsourcing some of our biggest secrets, like the technology of the modern airplane, the 787 being built by Boeing. We're giving that technology over to Japan where they are going to make the wing.

"This is a very big erosion of our national security," he continued. "We're making the best ideas here in America, we come up with the ideas for the technology, but the manufacturing happens in a plant in some other country, and we just allow them to take our ideas."

Hoffa returned to the Senate amendment to block the truck project.

"Today is a victory to keep unsafe trucks from coming in from Mexico," he asserted, "but there is a bigger agenda here. America could lose 40 million jobs and our children are not going to have any place to work. American technology and manufacturing and American know-how are being outsourced all over the world because foreigners will do it cheaper.

"Bush won't speak openly about the Security and Prosperity Partnership because he doesn't want anybody to know anything about it," Hoffa emphasized. "If the American people knew openly about the plan to build superhighway toll roads with foreign money or the plan to create a North American common market and regional government, we would rally to stop it. The Bush administration hasn't even openly consulted Congress about SPP."

Hoffa ended the interview by stressing the Teamsters Union resolve to continue fighting against "free trade" agreements that are not "fair trade agreements."

"We've fought NAFTA," he reflected. "These trade bills are all the same. They end up with these massive trade deficits and why is that? Because it gives countries like Mexico and China access to our markets, but we don't get access to their markets on the same terms. The trade bills should not be one-way deals that only advantage the multi-national corporations. Fair trade deals should also open up foreign markets so we can (sell) American products on an equal basis.'

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