 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | October 2007 
Officials Promote Binational Trucking
 Paul M. Krawzak - Copley News
go to original
| Transportation Secretary Mary Peters walks around the front of a tractor-trailer during a safety inspection demonstration, Wednesday. (Associated Press)
Overview
Background: Transportation bills in Congress would kill a pilot program that allows Mexican and U.S. trucks to travel freely in both countries.
What's changing: U.S. and Mexican transportation officials are making their case to persuade lawmakers that Mexican trucks would be as safe as U.S. trucks and killing the program would hurt the economy.
The future: Fate of the program is uncertain. A compromise transportation bill has yet to be crafted. |
Pilot project touted at mock inspection
Washington – U.S. and Mexican officials staged a mock inspection of one American and one Mexican truck yesterday to drive home their message that a pilot program allowing Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways is safe.
President Bush is a strong backer of the six-week-old project, which Congress is seeking to shut down because of safety concerns, as well as fears that Mexican truckers could transport terrorists or drugs and deprive higher-paid U.S. truck drivers of jobs.
The event held outside the Department of Transportation headquarters included a rare appearance by Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez. He joined U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to lobby for the program.
Referring to critics of the border opening as “mythmakers,” Tellez insisted that Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks – a contention disputed by opponents of the program.
“Nothing about Mexican trucks or drivers will make U.S. highways less safe or secure,” he said, echoing reassurances offered by his U.S. counterparts.
Mexican carriers authorized to participate in the one-year pilot project must pass vehicle inspections every 90 days and comply with all U.S. laws. The program also allows U.S. carriers to send trucks into Mexico for the first time.
The administration has pushed the program as the first step in opening the U.S.-Mexican border to long-haul truck traffic in both directions, as required in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The administration appears to face an uphill battle in saving the program, because both chambers of Congress have provisions to end the program in their differing versions of transportation legislation. The House and Senate have yet to hammer out a single compromise bill to send to Bush.
During a three-day visit to Washington that ended yesterday, Tellez made his case for the trucking program during individual meetings with about 20 lawmakers – including House and Senate Republican leaders and Democratic and Republican members of the powerful appropriations committees.
Opponents denounced as a gimmick the inspection yesterday of a U.S. truck and one of the Mexican trucks in the pilot program. The inspection was carried out by Maryland state police.
A half-block away, two dozen protesters from the Teamsters Union, a key opponent, chanted and held up signs reading “Staged Inspection (does not equal) Safe Program.”
“That inspection means nothing,” Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a critic of the program, said in a statement. He added that the administration would be better served addressing opponents' contentions that the Mexican government does not maintain reliable records of truck driver violations and accidents.
Officials at the press conference said both governments have fully addressed safety concerns.
“This is about trade; it's not about safety,” Peters said of opposition to the program. “We continue to be hopeful that we can convince members of Congress that we have met their standards.”
Gutierrez said shutting down the program “risks harming consumers and slowing down our economy,” because it would reinstate the need for short-haul trips across the border that add millions of dollars in transportation costs. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us