Mexico released the list of revised tariffs today is response to the Obama Administrations continued refusal to comply with our obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The biggest impact comes in new agricultural and processed food products. The Mexican government imposed tariffs of 10-20 percent on products like chocolate, ketchup, chewing gum and cheese — all products of the manufacturing sector, made in American factories by American workers.
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Opponents of Mexican trucks want to ban Mexican trucks such as this one that they claim are dangerous, unsafe junk.
Instead, we’re referring to the sophomoric letter to the US Trade Representatives office, by OOIDA President Jim Johnston on February 24.
Similar to the press release by OOIDA’s Norita Taylor that we commented on earlier, Johnston calls on U.S. trade rep to defend American jobs
Johnston made these claims:
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Interesting interview with Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow, American Enterprise Institute’s Phil Levy, and Independent Drivers Association Owner-Operator Rod Nofziger on the future of NAFTA and trade between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
It’s interesting to watch Nofziger’s vacant stare like a fish out of water against Davidow and Levy, two heavyweights who know what they are talking about.
Nofziger’s rant starts at about 4:02 into the video and it is nothing special. Simply repeating the same scripted lies which Ambassador Davidow easily debunks, as we have here, many times.
But, it is interesting to watch.
It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve had the opportunity to deliver a load here in the San Diego area, and the changes are enormous.
The old 76 fuel stop on 905 where we used to fight for the few parking spaces in the dirt has that area fenced off and a new Pilot is across the street.
CHP has a new inspection facility half a block from the commercial crossing, where every truck coming in from Mexico is directed to.
The drop yard we use of Enrique Firmi was a surprise, inasmuch every trailer had it lights in place, glad hand gaskets, none missing, a marked change from the old days.
The area around Otay Mesa is where Hoffa and some of his union goons made their photo op in 07 protesting the impending Cross Border Pilot Program. They stood around with their protest signs, yelling and making angry gestures at the Mexican drivers, who were doing nothing other than the job they were hired to do.
They ignored the new or newer drayage trucks and focused the photo op on older cabovers that in their minds were junk, ignoring the fact that these trucks, all of them, had crossed the CHP inspection facility moments earlier.
And for those who operate in or through California, we all know what pricks the CHP commercial officers can be.
Every Truck, Every Time
That was the comments made by former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, pertaining to trucks from Mexico. And it was a comment immediately seized upon and ridiculed by the opponents. Yet is was more misinformation and lies by the opposition.
From Texas to California, these inspections stations are right at the border, as required under Congressional directives for the Pilot program. Every truck crossing the border gets a visual inspection and document inspection. If something is apparent, they are pulled in for a random level I. It is a system that works.
As I dropped my trailer in the transfer yard, I was looking around for the dangerous unsafe junk trucks that Spencer and Hoffa insist are the norm rather than the exception. Not surprisingly, I found none, unless you count the ones retired from service, and sitting in the lots with bald flat tires, busted windshields covered with layers of dust from years of inactivity.
What I did see, at this one location, and others on the highway, were a fleet of late model, 2002 or newer, Internationals and Freightliner Centuries.
All the units were dual registered, in California and Baja California. Most had current CVSA stickers indicating they had been through a level 1 inspection recently. And oddly enough, since they are always talking about security issues south of the border, most of these units had a sign on the side of the cab, in English and Spanish (sorry all you English only freaks) that said, and I paraphrase,
This truck equipped with a GPS tracking unit. The driver does not know where it is, how it works or how to disable it”
Kinda hoaky but probably effective.
Most of the transfer yards are within spitting distance of the border crossing. In the case of Crown Express, three blocks. Crown Express is the service agent for my company, Celadon, Messilla Valley and others.
So the length of haul for these trucks is 3 blocks in the US and maybe 10 miles into the Tijuana industrial areas, although many are equi-distance on the Mexican side.
I spoke with the dispatchers in the office, all who spoke perfect English despite living in Tijuana and commuting to work in the US.
One of the questions asked was about the alleged Army or Police escorts that some have claimed are a regular occurrence escorting trucks to the border crossing on the Mexican side. They didn’t know what I was talking about and denied it happening. In addition, the highjacking of trucks, allegedly an every day occurrence, if you listen to the opposition, rarely happens.
An interesting day as tomorrow promises to be. If I have the time, I plan on further efforts to debunk the claims of the opposition, concerning border operations in this area.
President Obama has been warning that tit-for-tat protectionism could drive the world into an even worse economic slump than it is already in. He is right. Unfortunately, Congress doesn’t seem to be listening.
The $410 billion spending bill that Mr. Obama signed into law last week cuts off financing for a pilot program that allows Mexican trucks to deliver goods across the United States. The move clearly violates the North American Free Trade Agreement, which promised — starting in 2000 — to open cargo transport throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada to carriers from all three countries. This week, Mexico retaliated, leveling tariffs against $2.4 billion worth of American imports.
Both the United States and Mexico must be careful. A full-fledged fight could threaten more than $350 billion in annual commerce between the two countries. That is clearly in nobody’s interest.
An arbitration panel ruled in 2001 that the United States was in breach of its Nafta obligations on Mexican trucks. But thanks to the Teamsters union and its allies in Congress, all but a small number of Mexican carriers are restricted to operating within a 25-mile band from the border.
The truck drivers’ argument that Mexican trucks are unsafe is spurious — a flimsy cover for protectionism. Data from the Department of Transportation show that Mexican trucks and drivers operating in the United States — along the border and in the pilot program — have a better inspection record, with fewer violations, than their American counterparts.
President Obama has so far shown a worrying ambivalence about trade. He has called for renegotiating Nafta, creating anxiety in both Ottawa and Mexico City — claiming that this can somehow be done without harming trade. While he managed to persuade Congressional Democrats to water down a “Buy American” provision in the fiscal stimulus package, he did not get them to pull it altogether.
We understand the White House did not want to threaten the passage of the spending bill by raising a ruckus over Mexican trucking, a comparatively minor issue. But it is time for Mr. Obama to put some political muscle behind his declared support for open trade.
He can start by persuading Congress to revive the truck pilot program or start a new one. And he must make clear that — sometime soon — all properly inspected Mexican trucks must be able to work throughout the country, as Nafta requires. That would not only solve this trade spat, but it would provide the world with needed reassurance that the United States will stand by its trade agreements in these difficult times.
Editorial The New York Times
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NAFTA compliance, finally / Obama will end 17-year ban on Mexican trucks
Safe Mexican carriers such as this one will soon be seen on US highways as the Obama administration does the right thing and fulfills our promises under NAFTA. The time for the lies, fear mongering and hysteria is over with.
The North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified by Congress almost 17 years ago. It’s about time the United States began honoring a key part of it. A sticking point in the treaty has been the provision allowing truckers from Mexico, Canada and the United States cross-border access to each nation’s highways.
The United States allowed Canadian truckers access, but kept out Mexican trucks. Democratic lawmakers claimed they were worried about “safety concerns” related to the Mexican trucks. But what they were really worried about was how best to cater to labor unions and address the Teamsters’ concerns that Mexican truckers represented unwelcome competition.
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