Teamsters look to litigate over DOT Mexico/U.S. cross-border truck plan

Teamsters look to litigate over DOT Mexico/U.S. cross-border truck plan    The International Brotherhood of Teamsters union is considering legal action to prevent implementation of a contentious Bush administration pilot project to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks to operate deep within the United States.
   The union's move toward legal action comes just days after a Federal Register notice said the Bush administration plans to move forward with the program despite vehement opposition from labor, business and congressional leaders.
   Published Friday, the notice said that once U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III completes his report on the program to Congress and the DOT completes any follow-up actions addressing issues raised in his report, the program would begin.
   'It's outrageous, yet not surprising, that the Bush administration would announce on a Friday during Congress' August recess that it plans to recklessly move forward with its hugely unpopular program to throw open our border to unsafe Mexican trucks,' said Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. on Monday. 'President Bush's fondness for secrecy is matched only by his willingness to defy Congress.'
   The Teamsters have been a very vocal opponent of the program, citing concerns over the safety records of Mexican-domiciled trucks. The union filed a suit in April attempting to stop the program.
   The administration's plans to proceed with the program comes nearly six months to the day after the DOT announced in February that it would begin a one-year pilot program within several months to allow a U.S. government certified group of 100 Mexican trucking companies to operate beyond the current 20- to 25-mile commercial zones along the U.S. Southwest border.
   Opening the borders for trucks by 2000 was mandated under the 1993 U.S.-Mexico-Canada-signed North American Free Trade Agreement. After the U.S. government failed to implement the truck provisions regarding Mexico, a NAFTA tribunal declared in 2001 that the United States must meet the provisions of the treaty regarding Mexican vehicles. Despite this, legislation and litigation — under the guise of safety and labor concerns — has kept the Mexican trucks limited to the narrow commercial zones along the U.S./Mexico border.