NewsMax.com Wires
Saturday, July 28, 2001

The Senate has showed overwhelming support for the standards.

McCain and Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, have agreed that the United States should guarantee the safety of Mexican trucks, but said the Democrats' plan, which enjoys some support from Republicans, would force the United State to violate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"We are changing and violating a solemn treaty made between three nations and we are doing it on a [spending] bill," McCain said. McCain and Gramm have brought the Senate to a halt, debating and voting on endless, meaningless amendments to protest the standards.

The Senate voted 70-30 Thursday to stop debate on McCain's core objections, signaling overwhelming support for the safety plan. The House late last month went even further by voting 285-143 to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads almost entirely. The Senate could theoretically remain in session all weekend. "They can't take 70-30 as an answer," one Democrat staffer said.

But President Bush has advocated his own safety plan, rejected by Senate Democrats as inadequate, and has vowed to veto the bill.

At issue is a January 2001 deadline to allow Mexican trucks access to American highways under NAFTA. But Democrats put a raft of new safety requirements into the $60 billion transportation bill headed to the Senate floor, and tagged $103 million to implement the new requirements.

There is not much debate about the potential safety concern posed by Mexican trucks.

Up to Half Violate Safety Rules

Based on the limited inspections performed by Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, between one-third to one-half of Mexican trucks that are inspected are pulled off the highway because of driver or truck safety violations, according to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Vice President Jackie Gillman. "That means there have been serious safety violations by either the driver or the truck,' Gillman said.

According to the Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, another highway safety organization, Mexico lacks a safety oversight system for trucks and does not enforce hours-of-service rules for drivers.

"Mexican trucking is not regulated," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V. "Mexican trucks and safety standards are nearly nonexistent. Mexican law fails to require many of the fundamentals of highway safety policy that are required by U.S. law and regulation."

On this side of the border, there are only two safety inspection facilities, both in California, at 27 permanent border crossings, according to CRASH. That group has estimated that the Bush plan might allow Mexican trucks to operate on U.S. roads for 18 months before the safety regime took effect.

The highway safety groups support the safety requirements in the Senate bill drafted by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and so do key Democrat constituencies such as International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

"First of all, there is no debate about safety," Gramm said. "Sen. McCain and I have an amendment that would require every single Mexican truck to be inspected."

Gramm and McCain argue that the Murray safety regime goes far beyond anything required of Canadian trucks or U.S. carriers and would therefore violate NAFTA. For example, the Murray language would require Mexican carriers to be insured in the United States, and would dispatch teams of inspectors to travel to Mexico to perform inspections.

"This is not about safety," Gramm said. "This is about whether Mexican trucks are treated equally."

The Mexican government appears inclined to agree. "We are very concerned after regarding the Murray amendment and the administration's position regarding it that the legislative outcome may still constitute a violation of the agreement," Mexican Secretary of the Economy Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista wrote in a July 24 letter to Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Republican Minority Leader Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.

The United States could face trade penalties in excess of $1 billion for violating NAFTA if the provisions become law, according to opponents of the Democrats' truck safety plan.

But the Senate appears resolute, and for now continues slogging toward a veto showdown with Bush.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Immigration/Borders
Sen. John McCain
A product that might interest you:
Have an Opinion About This? Send an URGENT PriorityGram Today