House members call for end to NAFTA trucking provision

House members call for end to NAFTA trucking provision    Rep. Peter DeFazio and 77 fellow House members last week requested the Obama administration to permanently scuttle any efforts to open U.S. highways to Mexican motor carriers by renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement to remove the cross-border trucking provision.
   Mexico has used the U.S. failure to live up to its treaty obligations as cause to hit the United States with tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of exports, which has made U.S. products more expensive and led to lost sales and jobs. Mexico retaliated last year after Congress pulled the plug on a Department of Transportation pilot program that allowed a small contingent of approved Mexican carriers that met strict standards to operate in the interior of the country. Detractors, including the Teamsters union and some public safety advocacy organizations, claim Mexican trucks are unsafe and are not subject to the same safety standards as U.S. carriers.

DeFazio

   Under the existing system, Mexican truckers are permitted to operate within a 20-mile commercial zone on the U.S. side of the border for the purpose of transferring shipments with U.S. freight companies.
   'Mexico has no meaningful system for commercial driver's licenses, drug testing or hours of service. This is a trade agreement that threatens the safety of the American public. Mexico has no right to use tariffs to force unsafe trucks with exhausted overworked, underpaid drivers into the United States,' said DeFazio, D-Ore., in statement.

LaHood

   In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, the lawmakers said the administration should work to eliminate the requirement to open borders to each country's trucking firms because it is unlikely that Congress will approve any revised pilot program. LaHood has said for the past year that the administration is working to tweak the pilot to address safety concerns and resubmit it for congressional review.
   'We caution the administration that we firmly believe it would be difficult, if not impossible, to receive Congressional support for a cross-border trucking program that allows tens of thousands of Mexican trucks traveling across the lower 48 states. NAFTA does not bind the U.S. to accept sub-par safety standards, and Congress is not going to waive our rights under NAFTA. We are entitled to require comparable standards for safety from Mexican trucking companies. Their standards are not even close to equivalent to U.S safety requirements. The addition of tens of thousands of substandard Mexican trucks to our roads would jeopardize the safety of our traveling public,' the letter said.
   It criticized the cross-border truck pilot program as too small to project safety for full opening of the border, and said participants were not representative of Mexican carriers likely to perform long-haul operations in the United States. Trucking industry experts have said, however, that only the highest capitalized and most efficient Mexican carriers would have the wherewithal or interest in operating in the U.S. interior.

Kirk

   Early last month, 56 members of the House asked LaHood and Kirk to quickly resolve the trucking dispute to spare U.S. exporters from further harm.
   The DeFazio letter says eliminating the NAFTA requirement for reciprocal truck access would eliminate the tariffs. Most U.S. carriers prefer to use Mexican partners rather than operate with their own drivers and equipment in Mexico. The escalation of drug warfare in Mexico has further dampened any interest in operating south of the border.
   'Removing the cross border trucking provision from NAFTA will also prevent more job losses at a time when we can least afford them. Should the border be fully opened to Mexican trucks, the low wages of Mexican drivers will drive U.S trucking companies out of business. This continues a disturbing trend of American job losses through outsourcing. The difference is that we are allowing foreign workers making foreign wages to enter our nation and unfairly compete for American jobs. Opening our border to Mexican trucks is a lose-lose for U.S. workers and the traveling public.
   'It is clear the easiest path to eliminating the retaliatory Mexican tariffs is to renegotiate U.S. NAFTA Annex I,' the lawmakers wrote.
   In his statement, DeFazio said, 'The Obama administration proposal has not been made public and I have not seen it but, I am skeptical that Congress will approve any program of this kind. The safety concerns are just too big an obstacle to overcome. This section of NAFTA is just unacceptable and cannot be remedied with tinkering at the edges. I believe the solutions offered in this letter will be more fruitful for the administration.' ' Eric Kulisch