1st Mexican truck to enter US interior within days

[MLX]

http://news.yahoo.com/1st-mexican-tr...184747565.html

Opinions? Should the Obama administration be condoning the handing out of jobs that can potentially be given to Americans, to employees of Mexican companies with the lack of jobs in America? (Sort of what they're doing anyway by ignoring the illegal immigration issue, but trucking is most certainly not a job americans "wont do."

Article:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The first Mexican carrier is set to roll into the U.S. interior within days, but the Teamsters union and two California congressmen haven't given up on stopping the cross-border trucking program that had been stalled for years by safety concerns and political wrangling.
U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Bob Filner joined Teamsters President James Hoffa at the border Wednesday to take a bipartisan stand against the pilot project that will allow approved Mexican trucks to come deep into the United States. The first one will enter Texas on Friday.
Hunter is a San Diego-area Republican, while Filner is a Democrat whose district includes California's border with Mexico. They were surrounded at a news conference by more than 75 union members from at least five states.
Allowing Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods rather than transfer them to U.S. haulers at the border will put American jobs and highway safety at risk, they said.
"We're literally taking good jobs here in America and passing them over the line to Mexico," Hunter told the crowd, many holding signs reading "NAFTA kills" and "Stop the war on workers."
Washington on Friday approved the first Mexican trucking company, Transportes Olympic, nearly two decades after the hotly contested provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement set off lawsuits and a costly trade dispute between the neighboring countries.
Transportes Olympic's long-haul truck will cross the border Friday at Laredo, Texas, and head about 450 miles north to Garland, Texas, to deliver industrial equipment, said Guillermo Perez, the transport manager at the firm in the industrial Monterrey suburb of Apodaca, about two hours south of Laredo.
He dismissed claims that Mexican trucking companies and their drivers do not meet U.S. safety standards. He said his company has a strict, random drug testing policy for its 61 drivers and it has bought more than a dozen trucks in the past two years.
U.S. inspectors will check the trucks Thursday and will also have a database on truckers who have been approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Perez said.
"It's a really controlled program. There's no way to avoid the law," he said. "We are really prepared for this. It's not weird for me that some (U.S. trucking) companies are willing to shut it down because now they have to compete with us."
Perez declined to reveal how much his drivers earn.
The company was approved under the pilot program in 2009 before President Barack Obama's administration cancelled it. Mexico retaliated by placing tariffs on 99 agricultural products worth more than $2 billion annually.
Mexico cut the tariffs in half this summer after Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon approved an inspection and monitoring program for the companies that had been approved in 2009. The Mexican government has vowed to lift the rest once the truck heads out of the border zone Friday.
"We're really excited," Perez said. "Now we can provide door-to-door service, so it's about a 15 percent savings for companies."
Opponents say the fight isn't over.
Hunter has co-authored a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., that would stop the pilot program in three years and require Congress to vote on the issue again.
"We hope we can stop this before we have a disaster," Filner said.
Criminal activity has been a problem for years even within the U.S. government's strictest trusted carrier programs. Drug trafficking organizations have smuggled tons of drugs inside trucks driven by approved truckers coming from inspected and certified facilities inside Mexico.
Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the Independent Drivers Association, which represents small independent trucking businesses, said 100,000 trucking jobs will be lost. Proponents say it will spur economic growth as companies save millions by sending the goods door-to-door.
"We certainly hope that it cannot be stopped," said James Clark, director of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce's Mexico Business Center. "The U.S. has been in violation of the NAFTA agreement ever since the beginning of the trucking issue. Mexican trucks have every right to come into the U.S. under NAFTA as long as the trucks are fully inspected to U.S. standards and the drivers speak English."
Supporters say especially strict safeguards have been implemented: Electronic devices will track the routes drivers take, how long they drive and how long they rest. Participating drivers must undergo national security and criminal background checks, and inspectors will administer oral English-proficiency exams.
Three U.S. trucking companies have been given the green light under the program to drive into Mexico, according to the Mexican government. But Hoffa said American truckers don't want to drive into Mexico because of the country's violent crime problem.
About 70 percent of goods from the $4 billion trade between the two nations are transported by land, according to the Mexican government.

[Catta]

Thats how capitalism works... isnt it?

[Sunseeker]

"declined to reveal how much they earn" and that's the key right there folks. We're getting rid of good American jobs in favor of underpaid foreign workers.

[Howard Moon]

Lol, only 17 years after the NAFTA was signed. Seems only fair.

[Catta]

having to transfer all cargo at the border seems to be a massive waste of time and money...

[xylophone]

Clearly none of you have ever had to drive in Mexico.

I thought my fellow Californians were bad/crazy drivers, but they have nothing on people down in Mexico.

[Sunseeker]

having to transfer all cargo at the border seems to be a massive waste of time and money...

It's a great way to ensure that trucks aren't loaded with drugs and illegals though, which has been the problem with Mexican trucking firms in the past.

[Xargon321]

as a former trucker i dont see any problem with this they are not going to be in the country delivering goods from state to state they are going to be hauling goods that originate from Mexico to clients in the states and taking goods that go back to Mexico. not to mention that they are going to have to be inspected when they get to the border. and that they will have to comply with US carrier standards.

[balatro]

Knowing people here in the US that haul freight into Canada and Mexico, it seems silly to oppose the opposite - plus it's a waste of time and money.

If you're worried about them shipping drugs, people, weapons, etc -- do what border security is meant to do and search the truck.

[shimerra]

"declined to reveal how much they earn" and that's the key right there folks. We're getting rid of good American jobs in favor of underpaid foreign workers.

Ah yes, the crusade for "American" jobs. That fundamental belief that because Joe and Jose can do the same job equally well but Jose is willing to do it for 2.00$ less an hour we should give the job to Joe anyway because Jose is Mexican and Joe is American. Funny how we're a country where so many talk up the benefits of free market capitalism until anything involving international trade comes up, then it's screw the free market and the foreigners and usually our own consumers with them!


It's disappointing to see that statement when you later say:

It's a great way to ensure that trucks aren't loaded with drugs and illegals though, which has been the problem with Mexican trucking firms in the past.

Which is actually a legitimate concern and reason to regulate Mexican trucking into America.

[Kalyyn]

If it makes my shit cheaper, then I'm all for it. If Americans are demanding more pay than the job is actually worth, then screw them.

---------- Post added 2011-10-20 at 06:26 PM ----------

It's a great way to ensure that trucks aren't loaded with drugs and illegals though, which has been the problem with Mexican trucking firms in the past.

Though there is this...

[Catta]

If it makes my shit cheaper, then I'm all for it. If Americans are demanding more pay than the job is actually worth, then screw them.

---------- Post added 2011-10-20 at 06:26 PM ----------



Though there is this...

well... said illegals makes more shit cheap...

[Howard Moon]

Clearly none of you have ever had to drive in Mexico.

I thought my fellow Californians were bad/crazy drivers, but they have nothing on people down in Mexico.

What does that have to do with anything? This is about mexican truckers driving into U.S. ^^

[Sunseeker]

Ah yes, the crusade for "American" jobs. That fundamental belief that because Joe and Jose can do the same job equally well but Jose is willing to do it for 2.00$ less an hour we should give the job to Joe anyway because Jose is Mexican and Joe is American. Funny how we're a country where so many talk up the benefits of free market capitalism until anything involving international trade comes up, then it's screw the free market and the foreigners and usually our own consumers with them!

"the country" can say what it wants. Personally I believe the neoliberal view of free-trade is a crock of shit and I'm highly favorable to non-floating currency and protectionism. Anything that gets farmed out to foreign nations tends to drop quickly in quality. And yeah, sorry but when unemployment is a huge issue here in America, the last thing our government needs to be doing is making deals that make it easier to export jobs and import foreign labor.

[Kalyyn]

well... said illegals makes more shit cheap...

I'm from Indiana. I'm no stranger to illegal workers. In fact, illegal immigrants are just about the best thing to ever happen to this state.

I say we keep the immigration laws, but don't enforce them. That way we can have dirt cheap labor forever!

[nixcookies]

Personally I have no moral objection to foreigners / international companies doing jobs in place of a American (British in my case) company.

I can certainly understand the concern but I can't really see why it should be given to a national company / employee if the foreign company/employee is willing to it for cheaper, it's the way business works.

Like someone has already mentioned, sometimes the savings made can be passed down to consumers to increase competitiveness meaning we get their products and services cheaper, which I think is great

[Jeleh]

I don't see this as mexicans taking any jobs, personally i feel the original situation of not allowing the companies to deliver their own goods essentially constitutes america stealing jobs/money from mexico. That's just my view though, sounds like mexico made the americans pay for it with their tariff on their goods, and now that's the only reason why their stance has changed. It's costing them money.

[Catta]

I'm from Indiana. I'm no stranger to illegal workers. In fact, illegal immigrants are just about the best thing to ever happen to this state.

I say we keep the immigration laws, but don't enforce them. That way we can have dirt cheap labor forever!

thats what uve been doing all along

[xylophone]

What does that have to do with anything? This is about mexican truckers driving into U.S. ^^

Its a safety issue, regarding the driving ability/habits of Mexican big rig drivers

[Howard Moon]

Knowing people here in the US that haul freight into Canada and Mexico, it seems silly to oppose the opposite

Exactly, U.S. firms come and go and do as they please in Mexico, it was about time they fulfilled their end of the bargain.