Some US truckers protested at the border crossing YouTube video:

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Senators move to stop Mexican trucks

By SUZANNE GAMBOA
The Associated Press

9/10/2007

WASHINGTON — Two influential senators proposed a plan to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads on Monday, saying not enough has been done to make sure they are safe.

Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., want to strip funding for a pilot program launched last week giving Mexican carriers full access to America's roadways.

Their proposal, scheduled for a Senate vote Tuesday morning, came the same day the first Mexican truck participating in the long-delayed free trade program delivered its cargo to North Carolina.

Republicans said they would oppose any plan to keep Mexican carriers out of the U.S. They said Mexico has more stringent trucking standards than Canada, whose carriers already have full access to U.S. highways.

"Can't we use some common sense here? This is not some enemy satellite on our border," said Mississippi Republican Sen. Trent Lott, adding that some critics want to make Mexico the "bogeyman."

The pilot program allows up to 100 trucks to travel anywhere in the U.S. Since 1982, Mexican trucks were prohibited from going further than 20 miles into the U.S., except in Arizona, where the limit was 75 miles.

Transportes Olympic, the only Mexican carrier granted full access to U.S. roadways as of Monday, has told the Transportation Department it will use only long haul trucks made within the past three years on U.S. roads.

Melissa Delaney, spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, said there were no problems with the border crossing.

"Mexican trucks and drivers must meet safety standards that in many respects are higher than the standards for their U.S counterparts," said John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. "It is unfortunate that some in the Senate would seek to deprive U.S. consumers of the significant savings, and U.S. truck drivers of the significant new opportunities that the cross-border trucking demonstration project is generating."

Dorgan said U.S. citizens want to be sure when they pull up or drive next to an 18-wheeler, the truck and its driver have undergone the same checks and inspections required under U.S. safety rules.

But an inspector general's report issued last week said U.S. officials checking Mexican trucks are only examining information made available to them by the carrier, he said.

Information concerning vehicle inspections, accident reports, insurance records and driver violations were not available and databases with such information are still in development, the report said.

That information is "very probative on whether it is a safe program," Specter said.

"We do want to have good relations with Mexico. We do not want to impede legitimate commerce, but safety is a very vital factor and there are good reasons to insist on safety and verification," he said.

Dorgan used as a prop an enlarged copy of a news report on a deadly crash in Mexico involving a truck laden with ammonium nitrate. Earlier in a news conference, he acknowledged little was known about the accident.

The truck in the accident was not headed to the U.S. and those participating in the pilot program cannot carry hazardous materials.

With the vote on Dorgan's proposal falling on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said he could not see how any patriotic American could continue allowing Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways.

Trucks from Canada and Mexico were to get unrestricted access to U.S. roads in 1995 under the North American Free Trade Agreement. But opposition from labor unions and safety groups delayed access for Mexican trucks.

A NAFTA arbitration panel overruled the U.S. in 2001, but lawsuits and lengthy negotiations with the Mexican government led to even more delays.

Mexico granted an El Paso, Texas-based carrier's trucks access to Mexico's roads last week in return for the U.S. access.

The amendment is S. 1789

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The first 2 Mexican-domiciled trucks have delivered their payloads

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FROM:

MEXICO CITY - Two Mexican tractor-trailers have delivered payloads in New York and South Carolina, becoming the first trucks to operate deep in the United States under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program criticized on both sides of the border.

The trucks, operated by Transportes Olympic, a company based outside the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, crossed into the United States carrying steel construction materials and will haul similar products from Arkansas and Alabama back across the border, Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said Sunday.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have been allowed to operate in the United States only within a 25-mile zone along the border, where they transfer loads to U.S. vehicles for transport elsewhere in the country.

Unrestricted access was supposed to begin in 1995, but the Clinton administration refused to open the border to Mexican trucks out of concern that they might be unsafe. A NAFTA arbitration panel overruled the U.S. in 2001, but lawsuits and lengthy negotiations with the Mexican government led to even more delays.

On Thursday, the U.S. Transportation Department granted permission to Transportes Olympic to haul cargo anywhere in the United States as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In turn, Mexico granted authority to Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution Inc. of El Paso, Texas, to travel throughout Mexico.

"On Friday, Sept. 7, the first two Mexican cargo trucks crossed the border with the United States," Tellez told a news conference.

The U.S. plans to give as many as 25 Mexican firms permission to haul cargo north of the border by the end of the month, and will add another 25 per month until reaching 100 — for a total of 1,000 trucks — by year's end under a one-year pilot program. The Mexican government also has committed to allow trucks from as many as 100 U.S. firms to travel anywhere in Mexico.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, environmentalist group the Sierra Club and watchdog organization Public Citizen sued to stop it, saying Mexican trucks do not meet U.S. safety and environmental standards and that there would not be enough oversight of drivers crossing the border. A federal appeals court ruled last week that the Bush administration could move ahead with the program.

Dozens of truckers protested at border crossings in Texas and California on Thursday, some carrying signs reading "NAFTA Kills" and "Unsafe Mexican Trucks."

In Mexico, representatives of the national trucking association have argued that most Mexican companies are not ready for cross-border long-haul trips because the government has failed to help them modernize and take other necessary steps to qualify for the program.

U.S. and Mexican officials say the program is a necessary part of NAFTA and that trucks enrolled in the program would meet U.S. regulations.

"This project will allow us to demonstrate in practice that door-to-door cargo shipments without intermediaries at the border will lower costs ... and increase our country's competitiveness," Tellez said.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza estimated that letting trucks travel freely throughout both countries would save more than $400 million annually in transportation costs.

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FROM: Breibart.com

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (AP) - A truck carrying explosives for the mining industry exploded after running into another vehicle in northern Mexico, killing at least 37 people, a federal police official said Monday.

The two cars collided Sunday evening on a highway in Coahuila state, near the town of Sacramento, Luis Horacio de Hoyos said.

Soldiers, police, emergency officials, nearby residents and reporters were on the scene when the vehicle suddenly caught fire, igniting the truck full of explosives.

Maximo Alberto Neri Lopez, a federal police official, said 37 people were killed and 150 were injured. He said the explosion left a 3-meter by 15-meter crater in the concrete.

De Hoyos said three newspaper reporters from the city of Monclova were among the dead.