U.S. Extends Mexico Truck Program Despite Objections
| More news stories on Mexico and Latin America |
|---|
Reuters, August 3, 2008
The Bush administration on Monday extended a test program allowing long-haul trucks from Mexico full access to U.S. highways for up to two years, despite pending legislation in Congress to shut it down.
{snip}
Organized labor, highway safety and consumer groups have fiercely opposed the initiative, which was permitted under NAFTA—the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trucks from Mexico have historically been confined to U.S. border areas where they offload goods to be trucked by American companies.
Last year, regulators approved a one-year pilot program to allow a limited number of Mexican trucks full access to U.S. roads over congressional objections. American trucks were also allowed to operate in Mexico.
Ten U.S. carriers with 55 trucks and 27 Mexican carriers with 107 trucks have participated in the program as of July without incident, U.S. and Mexican officials said.
They also said vehicles participating in the program meet safety requirements. But officials from U.S.-based unions say disputed safety issues remain unresolved.
{snip}
(Posted on August 5, 2008)
Comments
The Bush Administration and the present Congress, are criminals of the lowest order.
Posted by Bobby at 4:39 PM on August 5
I promise to brake-spike in front of any Mexican truck I see in Colordo, so long as nobody else is in my car with me.
If we force enough of these invaders to jacknife their rigs, they won’t come back. So sorry, but I disapprove of the treaty, and I am prepared to put 18-wheelers with Mexican plates off the road.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 4:45 PM on August 5
despite pending legislation in Congress to shut it down
Which of course, almost guarantees that it WILL be shut down, lol. Bush has miscalculated big time with this. For years and years, this aspect of NAFTA has been put on hold while the US patiently waited for mexico to come into compliance with US standards. They never did….but now, this part of the program has been pushed through anyway. When the inevitable happens (or even, just because reasonable standards have been ignored), it will be made illegal. And another nail in the coffin of NAFTA will be hammered in.
Based on successes over the last couple of years in fighting for immigration reform and the fact that americans are being made aware of the threat of dissolving american soveriegnty, I feel confident that, soon, the whole open borders thing will finally be dead and buried.
Actually, I think the US is on the cusp of a new isolationism. Damn few people think the UN is a legitimate organization and nobody on either side of the aisle is thrilled with US involvement beyond our borders.
Posted by at 5:32 PM on August 5
This angers me to no end. The trucking industry is in severe distress financially already what with all the insane regulations, not to mention the theives in the oil industry. These south of the border invaders will reek havoc on an already drowning industry. Not to mention a few “Minor” national security issues, and the unknown number of deaths caused by a bunch of illiterate illegals. Once again GW never met a one worlder he didn’t like. Could this be more payback time to his seester in law?
Posted by THE OLD SAGE at 6:40 PM on August 5
Two years from today you will see the New York Times with headlines shouting about the increase in highway deaths due to out of control trucks. No mention of this new laissez-faire attitude towards drunk and poorly trained Mexican truckers will be made.
Posted by Tim at 6:50 PM on August 5
Why do these elected PUBLIC SERVANTS such as whorehey bush continue to betray and ignore the will of the people who elected them?
Posted by at 6:50 PM on August 5
I hope black folks like their Boy Obama. He has already signed off on free Mexican access to our highways and the replacement of black truck drivers with cheaper Mexicans. Obama loves the Bush worker replacement program.
Posted by Big Bill at 7:39 PM on August 5
And the perfidy of the liberal/neocon alliance continues.
Posted by Old Victorian at 7:48 PM on August 5
I am waiting for one of those “mexican truck drivers” to wreck into some high class rich moron….then see what will happen…maybe some CEO of some company that employes these leeches….wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake….might wake up those morons in charge….they are in such deep, deep coma’s all of them!!
Posted by lydia at 8:15 PM on August 5
Not only will american truckers be displaced by mexican truckers but more americans will be killed on our nations highways by mexican truckers who will bribe or use fake papers in mexico to get their uninspected and dangerous trucks with bald tires and bad brakes into the US. Not to mention truckers that have been drinking.
Posted by at 8:55 PM on August 5
“These south of the border invaders will reek”
Naturally. Oh, do you mean wreak?
>>Main Entry:
reek
Pronunciation:
\ˈrēk\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English rek, from Old English rēc; akin to Old High German rouh smoke
Date:
before 12th century
1chiefly dialect : smoke
2: vapor, fog
3: a strong or disagreeable fume or odor
>>Main Entry:
wreak
Pronunciation:
\ˈrēk also ˈrek\
Function:
transitive verb
Etymology:
Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan to drive, punish, avenge; akin to Old High German rehhan to avenge and perhaps to Latin urgēre to drive on, urge
Date:
before 12th century
1 aarchaic : avenge b: to cause the infliction of (vengeance or punishment)
2: to give free play or course to (malevolent feeling)
3: bring about, cause
Posted by ureek-uh, i have found it at 9:11 PM on August 5
since when did they care about the objections of “ordinary” Americans?
Posted by at 10:07 PM on August 5
“The Bush administration on Monday extended a test program allowing long-haul trucks from Mexico full access to U.S. highways for up to two years, despite pending legislation in Congress to shut it down.”
Jorge Bush, the best president Mexico ever had.
Posted by at 10:16 PM on August 5
Some years ago, I’m guessing maybe 1998, I was on I-10 going from Shreveport, LA to Biloxi, MS. I was listening to a local talk radio station. It seems there had been a bad pile-up a day or two before going across the bayous due to fog. It was started by a truck slamming into another vehicle. A truck driver called in to the station and said he had heard that some truckers were trying to warn this driver about fog ahead, but the driver didn’t understand them because he didn’t speak English.
I never heard another thing about it, but I thought at the time that it was probably true.
Posted by Varina at 11:01 PM on August 5
I promise to brake-spike in front of any Mexican truck I see in Colordo, so long as nobody else is in my car with me.
If we force enough of these invaders to jacknife their rigs, they won’t come back. So sorry, but I disapprove of the treaty, and I am prepared to put 18-wheelers with Mexican plates off the road.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 4:45 PM on August 5
—————————————-
Michael, that’s wrong. You’re unwittingly talking about injury and/or klling there. People shouldn’t post stuff like this on this site. I doubt you thought fully about the post, so it would be good to post a restatement or retraction. Surely you don’t mean you’d kill truckers-or innocent commuters?
It’s easy to get mad and say things that we don’t mean, or would never actually do. It’s part of being an erstwhile reasonable person in an insane world. But this is serious. Don’t encourage people to commit crimes.
Posted by at 2:38 AM on August 6
Another point, keep in mind diesel fuel would be much cheaper in Mexico. Wait until American trucking companies figure this out, and use the Mexican option to their fullest advantage.
Posted by at 8:31 AM on August 6
Wasn’t this program defunded by congress only to have the law ignored by Bush’s secretary of transportation? If so, how can this program continue and how can the executive completely ignore a law passed by congress and signed by the president?
Aside from its obvious lack of merit, this program is illegal. What happened to the constitution?
Posted by at 11:20 AM on August 6
A bit more evidence to support the creation of the North American Union? I see no evidence yet to dispute the claims made in the documentary Endgame (youtube).
Posted by at 7:01 PM on August 6
>>>The Bush administration on Monday extended a test program allowing long-haul trucks from Mexico full access to U.S. highways
In other words: LET THE CARNAGE BEGIN! Would you or anyone care to guess how many Mexican truck drivers are nipping at that bottle of tequila while driving? Or downing a six-pack of beer? The number of DWI accidents by illegals on the national scene is already staggering. Drunken and incompetent Mexicans causing hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage, medical care costs for the injured, even deaths of American citizens.
Remember Virginia’s “Highway of Death” we read about on this site a year or two back?
Posted by Fed Up at 8:13 PM on August 6
White americans need to march in LARGE numbers and let the politicians know that they have had enough.
The time for apathy and laziness has long passed.
White americans need to force the politicians to obey.
Why is Bush not impeached yet.
He is the number 1 traitor in US history.
Posted by at 3:54 AM on August 7
I keep hearing the same thing from the conservative posters to these comments in every one of these articles: “Quit crying truck-drivers and Teamsters. Can’t you handle a little competition? You must all be opposed to a free market and cheaper prices for goods” There is NO free market in America. The Teamsters are already all but destroyed and it’s only a matter of time before they find a way to wipe them out all together. I’m by no means pro-union but the “Teamsters hate competition” argument that the cons keep pushing is a non-issue. The goods delivered at the WalMart Distribution Center will cost the same whether Juan or John is behind the wheel. We are all at risk, this will only inflate profits and unless they “level the playing field” and introduce a true free market, this will only continue to be a money-making scheme manipulated by the govt under the falsehood that this is the only way to help Americans with inflation and high gas prices.
Posted by Former Trucker at 10:37 AM on August 7
Former Trucker:
I agree with you, but I don’t think that predatory capitalism is the order of the day among regular AR posters. I actually wish organized labor were stronger and more powerful in this country; as it is, they don’t seem to care about outsourcing, as I stated earlier about the CWA. Also, the Teamsters are about to lose thousands of members when InBev (formerly Anheuser-Busch) closes the St. Louis brewery (in spite of their promises not to), yet the Teamsters are oblivious.
Posted by Question Diversity at 4:16 PM on August 7