Let the Trucks Roll
Is Congress going to apply the brakes to the benefits of U.S.-Mexico trade?

Thursday, March 8, 2007

ANOTHER ANTI-NAFTA pile-on is brewing in Washington this week. Even though the United States has gained jobs, wealth and goodwill from the regional trade pact, for years opponents of free trade have tried to persuade American leaders to ditch one of the agreement's most benign provisions -- allowing Mexican freight trucks onto American roads. When the United States signed the treaty in 1993, it promised to allow such trucks in, scheduling implementation for 2000. But lobbying from the Teamsters and others with economic turf to protect have held that up -- until now.

Finally, after years of lawsuits, congressional meddling and cross-border negotiation, the Transportation Department and its Mexican counterpart have announced that they will pursue a "demonstration project" allowing trucks from 100 screened Mexican carriers to use American roadways freely. Under the program, U.S. inspectors working in Mexico will thoroughly vet the carriers, including every truck and every driver they send over the border, checking for such things as safety features, U.S.-licensed insurance coverage and knowledge of U.S. traffic signs. After the year-long demonstration phase, the Mexican undersecretary for transportation says, the two governments plan to allow all carriers from both countries access to each other's highways, and U.S. officials say that the inspection regime will be comparably extensive then.

Such requirements are far more burdensome than what NAFTA and common sense require. Under the treaty, Mexican trucks operating in the United States are subject to American trucking regulations, the enforcement of which should be enough to ensure safety on American roads. The Transportation Department points out that since it increased enforcement in the border zone -- a pocket of American territory into which Mexican trucks are currently allowed to travel -- Mexican trucks have become just as reliable as American ones, as measured by how many trucks are regularly out of service.

But in 2001, Congress imposed discriminatory requirements for Mexican trucks that went beyond simply enforcing existing trucking regulations. That move was a compromise between the White House, which wanted less regulation, and the House, which wanted to effectively ban Mexican trucks. It is unlikely that Congress would reverse itself now. On the contrary, the Teamsters and other groups are already arguing against even the overly cautious demonstration project, asserting that it is not stringent enough.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation,, will hold hearings today on the issue. We hope that she and her colleagues fully support the demonstration project and its ultimate goal of making cross-border trade more efficient for all Mexican and U.S. carriers. Currently, long-haul trucks in Mexico stop at the border and transfer their goods to short-haul vehicles that cross into the United States and transfer their cargo to American trucks. The process is unnecessarily wasteful and environmentally harmful, and it makes a variety of goods that Americans buy more expensive. After 14 years, it's time to let Mexican trucks in.