Mexican border battle continues today

Senators return to the ring today to continue their slugfest over the North American Free Trade Agreement and the debate of whether to impose tougher laws on Mexican trucks. The 57-27 vote fell three votes short of the margin needed to stop the debate late last week.

Majority Leader Tom Daschle, said the vote only delays the inevitable and expects that the Senate will approve the tough rules as part of its transportation appropriations bill. But President Bush has vowed to veto any bill that contains such rules. With the support of labor unions and safety advocates, a majority of senators are arguing that the Bush administration’s plan for opening the U.S. border to Mexican trucks does not ensure that the trucks will be safe. On the other side, a significant minority reply that the tough safety rules are a smokescreen for long-standing opposition to NAFTA.

Despite pleas from President Bush late Thursday afternoon, the Senate voted 70-30 in favor of an amendment that requires the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct an on-site compliance review of each Mexican company that wants access to the U.S. The move was to end delaying tactics by some Senators who want to ease current regulations on Mexican trucks, which are limited to a 30 km border zone and then forced to transfer goods to U.S. trucks. These tough standards do not apply to Canadian trucks.

Bush was reported as saying it is wrong to continue to “discriminate” against Mexican trucks, and Mexican counterparts need to be treated like Canadians.

Border inspections have found that 36% of Mexican trucks fail to meet U.S. safety standards, although such inspections also find 24% of U.S. trucks unsafe.

-with files from Truckinginfo.com