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View Full Version : NAFTA official threatens ban on American trucks in Mexico



Roberto T. Cast
04-17-03, 10:47 AM
Here is one for you Gyrenes. What do you think? This ariticle was published in The Laredo Times, Sunday, April 13, 2003, page 4A under State news.

McAlllen, Texas (AP) - The Mexican government is considering stopping some U.S. trucks from doing business in Mexico in retaliation for the United States refusal to allow Mexican trucks to make long-haul trips into the U.S. interior, a Mexican official said.

"We don't want to take it to the point of retaliation." Hector Marquez Solis, trade and NAFTA director at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., told a group off business and civic leaders at the fourth annual NAFTA conference.
But Mexico, he said, is running out of patience.The Mexican government is very close to taking action, but he would not say when or what kind of action the nation would take.

A provision in the NAFTA allows truck companies in the United States, Mexico and Canada equal access to each others roadways. But under pressure from the Teamsters Union, the U.S. has barred access to Mexican carriers, citing a variety of concefns ranging from safety and security to lower wage standards.

Mexican and U.S trucks are now allowed into a 20 mile buffer zone along each side of the international border.

President Bush late last year had moved to open the border to Mexican carriers, but in January a coalition of environmental and labor groups filed a lawsuit arguing the U.S. Department of Transportation had not conducted sufficient environmental impact studies before allowing the trucks into the country.

The department is set to complete that study this summer, said Ed Mortimer, senior manager of transportation infrastructure at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

In the meantime, the U.S is considered in violation of the NAFTA panel's decision and Mexico legally can retaliate by inflicting an equivalent trade effect.

"The United States is in violation and up for penalties, including their ability to put tariffs on goods," Mortimer said, in Saturday's editions of the Monitor.

"They've talked about doing it, and I can tell you there's a lot of frustration on the Mexican side,: he said. "I think they are about to retaliate."

Mexico is the U.S. second greated importer after Canada, buying $101.5 billion worth of goods and service from the U.S. in 2001.

Mecxican President Vicente Fox in the past has threatened to bar U.S. trucks from entering Mexico, and for months talk of such action has permeated trucking associations along the border.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Personal notes:
American truckers come into Laredo, Texas and drop of their trialor at the import lots and a mexican tractor hooked them up and take it across the border. American truckers do not nor do they want to cross the border themselves. The trailor are loaded up in mexico and return the trailor to the import lot.

The problem with the mexican trucks are as follows: the tires are not up to par with the U.S. trucks, no insurance, sometimes you see the mexican trucks on IH 35 running without lights and are speeding so they won't get caught. They buy used tractors and never change the company name. All they do is put mexican plates. This is only part of the problem with mexican truck. Wages are low as compare with U.S. truck driver.

As for me, let them stay on their side of the border.:banana:

wrbones
04-17-03, 11:00 AM
Mexico is right behind France and Canada in my book right now.

The French are already feeling the pinch from boycotts of everything from wine to tourism! Canada is beginning to experience the same effect. Mexico can keep the left wing celebrities when they go down there to rest from all of their hard work. We haven't had a real border war with them in a long time. Maybe they're about due.....

usmc85204
04-17-03, 11:45 AM
After living on the border for 12 years, I can state that the people of the United States would not be the losers in this fight. I believe that NAFTA is a farce and that the jobs lost below the boader have hurt the economy of this country.Maybe forcing companies to change haulers at the border will increase their cost enough to bring the job back to this country.

Roberto T. Cast
04-17-03, 02:23 PM
Maybe the $101.5 billion they spend on U.S. goods is one and same monies they get from from the U. S. as foriegn aid. Laredo has three international bridges to cross into mexico. Maybe they ought to be removed. If we ever have a war with mexico, I'll be the first to blow them bridges off the face of the earth. Mexico owes the U.S. millions of $$$ for water from the Rio Grand. They use more than they are alloted. There is somewhat of a fight that the U.S. (Texas) wants for mexico to pay for the water. I have not gone into mexico for the last 25 years. They don't have anything I need or want.

Semper Fi:marine:

Bonka
04-17-03, 04:25 PM
I've been to Laredo several times to drop a trailer and pick up one bound for the U.S. Roberto Cast is exactly right when he states that American truckers do not want to cross into Mexico. The checkpoints, drug-sniffing dogs, and heavy Border Patrol presence are a big turn-off. The vast majority of the Mexican tractors are old cabover models recycled from the States and haven't seen any maintenance since then. The Mexican people are hard-working, willing to cross into the U.S. illegally to work as migrant farm hands or in fire-trap chicken processing plants in order to send money home to their families. They are not the problem. The problem, as usual, is politics.