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NAFTA / MEXICAN TRUCKS

Mexican Trucks: As Deadline Looms, Inspection Systems Gridlock - January 20, 2002 (POS)

As Deadline Nears, Report Highlights Deficiencies In U.S. System For Inspecting Mexican Trucks

News Release

By:
Congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez
323 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
www.house.gov/rodriguez

Contact: David McFarland, (202) 225-1640

JANUARY 20, 2002

(WASHINGTON, DC) Energized by the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the United States, Mexico, and Canada, opened the floodgates of international trade. And as trade tariffs and fees fell, international businesses scrambled to ship hundreds of billions of dollars in goods to new markets on both sides of the border. To facilitate the sheer volume of commerce, a multi-million dollar trucking industry hit the road virtually overnight.

Under provisions of the 1994 NAFTA agreement, the United States was required to provide Mexican motor carriers unfettered access to our highways. But concerns about the safety of these vehicles led the Clinton Administration to limit Mexican truck operations to commercial zones near the border. Mexico, protecting its own interests, contested the Clinton decision and an international NAFTA tribunal ordered the United States to open its highways to Mexican motor carriers. In February 2001, the new Bush Administration announced that Mexican trucks would have access to all US highways by January 2002.

President Bush tells us that this is an issue of honoring our agreements. I concur. The same tribunal which ordered the United States to provide Mexican motor carriers unfettered access to our highways ruled that, under the same NAFTA provisions, the United States can require Mexican motor carriers to meet our nation's safety standards, a ruling I wholeheartedly support.

Unfortunately, holding Mexican trucks to American safety standards is easier said than done. In the next three decades, we expect the frantic pace of commercial truck traffic to increase by 85%. And on our side of the border, we need tremendous investment in our transportation and regulatory infrastructure. Particularly in Texas, we desperately need to improve our highways and bridges and expand our overwhelmed safety and Customs inspection facilities.

Right now, motor carriers in Mexico operate with limited oversight. Unlike American drivers, Mexican drivers do not have to meet minimal medical qualifications, submit to drug testing, or maintain logbooks, which monitor the length of time they spend behind the wheel. Mexican trucks are older, heavier, and more likely to transport unmarked toxic or hazardous materials. Not surprisingly, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) reports that the out-of-service rate for Mexican trucks entering the limited commercial zone currently permitted under NAFTA is roughly 50% -- higher than the national average for U.S. commercial vehicles. Overall, Mexican trucks are reported to have three times as many safety deficiencies as U.S. trucks. Faced with this month's NAFTA deadline, the Mexican government is taking initial steps to improve the safety of its motor carriers, but regulators have been unable to adequately enforce a border safety inspection program.

Knowing about these conditions, one might think that we would have already improved our own inspection stations in preparation for the opening of our border this month. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. In May of last year, the Department of Transportation reported that the United States has not made the adequate investments and "does not have a plan to ensure the safe opening of the U.S.-Mexico border to commercial vehicles." In a subsequent report, the General Accounting Office (GAO), a federal government watchdog agency, confirmed the DOT findings and what many of us already knew: opening US highways to Mexican motor carriers will stretch government inspectors and facilities beyond their ability to enforce our transportation safety standards.

These facts should be cause for alarm -- especially for those of us who live in South Texas. Despite processing 70% of all freight traffic from Mexico, Texas' ports lack a single permanent facility to inspect the 3 million trucks, which cross our border each year. And Texas' 37 part-time inspectors, the over-worked, under-paid people who actually enforce our highway safety standards, are grossly overburdened.

Improving truck safety in general is a complex and ongoing process, both internationally and domestically -- and the need to do so is clear. But promises made have been promises broken. Legislation I cosponsored in Congress to make the necessary improvements to our regulatory infrastructure was blocked by the House Republican Leadership and opposed by the Bush Administration.

Undoubtedly, we need more safety inspection stations and inspectors along our border. Although we need to fulfill our trade agreements, we must not do so by compromising the safety of Texas motorists. Until we all find a balanced approach to handling our international obligations AND our duty to ensure public safety, problems with NAFTA will be more than a bump in the road. Trade and safety can and must go together.

David McFarland
Congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez
323 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
David.McFarland@mail.house.gov
http://www.house.gov/rodriguez/
(202) 225-1640
(202) 225-1641