An FMCSA inspector conducts a Level I compliance inspection on a truck belonging to Transportes Olympic in 2007 prior to the initiation of the successful Mexican Pilot Truck Program
In a joint presser today, President Obama and President Calderon jointly announced agreement on a renewed program allowing Mexican carriers access to the United States as agreed under the 1994 NAFTA agreement.
[pullquote]“The deal to end the dispute “is built on the highest safety standards that will authorize both Mexican and U.S. long-haul carriers to engage in cross-border operations under Nafta,”[/pullquote]
The plan will allow for half of those tariffs to be lifted immediately. It will establish a reciprocal, phased-in pilot program that allows Mexican trucks to operate inside the U.S. provided they comply with a series of safety, driver-skills and language tests monitored by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Unfortunately, Mexico has stated anything less than full access will be unacceptable. A new pilot program could fall under this category.
Reaction from opponents of Mexican trucks and Mexico in general, was swift and as expected, but largely irrelevant.
Teamsters President James P. Hoffa issued this statement containing nothing new and nothing unexpected and everything totally irrelevant as has been the case with Hoffa and the Teamsters for years regarding this issue.
[pullquote]“The Bush-era pilot program was a failure that shouldn’t be repeated,” Hoffa said.[/pullquote]
“We continue to have serious reservations about DOT’s ability to guarantee the safety of Mexican trucks. Mexican trucks simply don’t meet the same standards as U.S. trucks. Medical and physical standards for Mexican trucking firms are lower than for U.S. companies. And how can Mexico enforce highway safety laws when it can’t even control drug cartels?
Perhaps it’s time for Hoffa to go find his daddy and spend some quality time with him.
OOIDA on the other hand is “outraged” with cross-border trucking plan.
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Guillermo Arias/Associated Press
An interesting article published in the New York Times today titled U.S.-Mexico Trucker Dispute Takes a Step Forward offers some interesting quotes from Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn and a spokes for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Senator John Cornyn:
“The cross-border trucking program boosts trade opportunities for the U.S. and creates jobs here in Texas. Mexican trucks must be held to stringent safety requirements — just like any carrier on U.S. highways.”
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MEXICO CITY – Mexico will maintain punitive tariffs on 99 U.S. products but will not add any more goods or change the list pending negotiations over a new program to allow Mexican cargo trucks on U.S. roads, the government announced Monday.
Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari said the move is a show of goodwill as the two countries begin discussing an initiative the U.S. presented last week to lift a U.S. ban on Mexican trucks.
“As of this moment we stop that rotating process” — the expansion of the taxed list and the periodic changing of goods subject to the punitive tariffs, Ferrari said after a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
The Mexican government has protested the U.S. ban on Mexican trucks as a violation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mexico initially levied higher tariffs on 89 U.S. products in March 2009, after the U.S. Congress failed to renew the pilot program that let a limited number of Mexican trucking companies haul freight beyond a 25-mile (40-kilometer) border commercial zone.
Last year, Mexico added 10 more goods and changed some of the products on the list after the U.S. failed to present a proposal for resolving the dispute.
Mexico’s punitive tariffs range from 5 percent to 15 percent on everything from cheese, fruits, juice and pork products to wine and toilet paper.
The tariffs have caused U.S. companies about $2 billion in commercial losses, Kirk said.
SOURCE: AP STORY
Mexican cross border hauler checking through security
We’ve had a weekend since Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released the “Concept Document” enabling the United States to finally uphold their obligations under the NAFTA agreement.
Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive to the release of the plan with opposition coming from the usual irrelevant sources, as predicted.
Immediately, the opposition chimed in citing job losses, unsafe trucks, and a variety of other baseless assumptions. Baseless because in the 15 years of opposition to allowing Mexican carriers to operate in this country, OOIDA and the TEAMSTERS have offered no concrete evidence to back up their claims. Why? Because none exists.
There does exist data that thoroughly debunks their claims of job losses and Mexican carriers coming in and undercutting US Truckers.
THE MYTH THAT MEXICAN TRUCKS WILL COST AMERICANS JOBS
Numbers don’t lie. According to FMCSA Summary Statistics for U.S. DOT Active Motor Carriers these numbers show how it is statistically and logically impossible for Mexican carriers to have any impact on US truckers jobs.
Active Carriers with U.S. DOT Number
| United States |
Mexico |
Canada |
| 717,919 |
15,193 |
22948 |
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Todd Spencer – "You can't fix stupid"
As expected, Todd Spencer and OOIDA quickly released a statement opposing any effort by the FMCSA and the Obama administration to comply with out obligation under NAFTA. Our non compliance having cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs and a significant amount of market share due to the perfectly legal retaliatory tariffs Mexico imposed for our non compliance.
Here is OOIDA’s statement: (Our opinion appears in between the paragraphs)
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The Commercial Carrier Journal released today what is says is the concept document that will permit the United States to fulfill it’s obligations under NAFTA to allow Mexican carriers equal access to US highways.
The Department of Transportation says this initial concept document, is a starting point in the renewed negotiations with Mexico, addresses concerns raised during the process that included meetings with lawmakers, safety advocates, industry representatives and other stakeholders to address a broad range of concerns and to listen to the fabrications and misinformation presented by some of the stakeholders who oppose Mexican trucks in this country for purely bogus reasons.
Not surprisingly, the concept document merely reiterates the requirements that were used for the very successful Cross Border Pilot Program. And even more surprisingly, this writer and this website can support, it principle, the requirements being suggested in the concept document. After all, the carriers who participated in the initial pilot program, met and passed these requirement with flying colors.
The document can be downloaded here:
Highlights of the PHASED U.S.-MEXICO CROSS-BORDER LONG HAUL TRUCKING PROPOSAL
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Two key Republican House members are calling on the Obama administration to end an impasse with Mexico over cross-border trucking.
Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) issued the following statements today regarding the Mexican trucking dispute as the NAFTA Commission meetings commence in Mexico:
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The Mexican government apparently is damned serious about trying to force the U.S. government to present it’s intentions in regards to the cross border trucking controversy.
Sources close MTO have indicated that Mexico is considering rotating its list of U.S. products subject to retaliatory tariffs by early 2011 if the Obama administration fails to present a proposal for resolution of the cross border trucking provisions that would provide Mexican carriers quid pro quo access to US markets.
The Mexican government will use all legal means to force the U.S. to comply with the trucking provisions of NAFTA, which the US agreed to in 1994, and those legal means will include a new rotation of the tariff’s list during the first quarter of 2011, the source said.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood recently announced a proposal was ready and would be presented to Congress after the Nov. 2 elections.
Mexico has not yet received any word from the Obama administration indicating when or whether DOT will introduce its plan after the election, one source said.
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