 |
|
|
 Editorials | Opinions | May 2007 
Our Opinion: Overblown, Racist Fears
 Tucson Citizen
Inaccurate and borderline racist fears are being raised about trucks from Mexico preparing to carry Mexican freight into the United States.
Opponents paint a false picture of squadrons of overloaded Mexican tractor-trailers with bad brakes and bald tires crossing the border and hurtling madly along U.S. highways. Behind the wheels, they say, illiterate Mexican peasants, unlicensed and overworked, are falling asleep after hours of nonstop driving.
American motorists inevitably will be roadkill, goes the argument.
Nonsense.
The concerns - and there are some - have been overblown, largely by unions that fear their members may lose work.
And this issue is an offshoot of the illegal immigration debate.
Under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, trucks from Mexico and the United States were supposed to have full access to roads in both countries by 2000.
It still hasn't happened. But under rules taking effect in July, up to 1,000 Mexican trucks and buses from up to 100 companies would be permitted to use U.S. roadways as part of a one-year experiment.
Mexican trucks entered the United States 4.5 million times last year. But those trucks had to stop within 25 miles of the border and transfer their goods to U.S. trucks - a process that has cost American consumers millions of dollars.
The main force fighting the entry of Mexican trucks into the United States has been the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is worried about its members' jobs.
The Teamsters and others have said Mexican trucks are unsafe, safety records are incomplete, 1 in 6 Mexican drivers have no logbooks and 1 in 4 have no valid driver's license.
Those are major concerns. But some are exaggerated. For example, the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says about 20 percent of Mexican trucks are not up to U.S. standards. That is the same rate as U.S. trucks.
The safety administration says it is well prepared to carefully screen Mexican trucks for violations of safety, immigration and customs laws and reinspect them for safety compliance every three months.
This dispute must be looked at as a key part of the solution to illegal immigration. The best way to keep Mexicans from entering the United States in search of jobs is to improve the Mexican economy.
Working with Mexican trucking companies to bring vehicles up to U.S. standards so they can be used to ship Mexican goods internationally would be a major step in improving the Mexican economy.
Mexican trucks and drivers must be required to meet all the safety, regulatory, environmental and other requirements imposed on U.S. trucks. Once that has been accomplished, they should be allowed to carry Mexican products throughout the United States.
letters@tucsoncitizen.com
NAFTA's goals
• Eliminate barriers to trade in, and facilitate the cross-border movement of, goods and services between the territories of the member nations.
• Promote conditions of fair competition in the free trade area.
• Increase substantially investment opportunities in the territories of the member nations.
• Provide adequate and effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in each nation's territory.
• Create effective procedures for the implementation and application of this agreement, for its joint administration and for the resolution of disputes.
• Establish a framework for further trilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation to expand and enhance the benefits of this agreement.
Source: Office of NAFTA and Inter-American Affairs. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us