CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS URGE U.S. SCREENING OF MEXICAN TRUCKS

CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS URGE U.S. SCREENING OF MEXICAN TRUCKS    The bipartisian leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has called on the Bush Administration to develop a screening system before the United States begins approving requests by Mexican trucking companies to access U.S. markets.
   “The Department of Transportation must be able to guarantee that every truck crossing our border meets all applicable U.S. safety standards for both the driver and the truck before it enters this country,” said committee chairman Don Young, R-Alaska.
      The U.S. plans to open the U.S. border to Mexican trucks because of a North American Free Trade Agreement arbitration ruling against a ban on Mexican trucks accessing U.S. markets.
   “We have the right to set safety standards and to require Mexican trucking companies to meet those standards,” said Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, the committee’s ranking Democrat. “Even the NAFTA arbitration panel agreed with that. We do not want unsafe, uninspected, unregulated trucks on U.S. roads.”
   The committee has jurisdiction over trucking safety, including the safety of foreign trucks entering the United States