U.S. DOT officials huddle on safety of Mexican trucks

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 12, 2001) — As President Bush prepares for a mid-February meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox, top officials at the U.S. Dept. of Transportation are huddling over strategies to make sure that Mexican trucks will meet U.S. safety standards.

Last week, an international arbitration panel ruled that the United States has been violating the North American Free Trade Agreement by keeping the border closed. Under the ruling, the U.S. can require Mexican truckers to meet U.S. safety standards but is subject to costly fines unless it gives Mexican trucks access.

That won’t be easy.

According to Julie Anna Cirillo, Assistant Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the out-of-service rate for Mexican trucks in Texas is 38%. That is a considerable improvement from what it used to be — 70% — but still much higher than the national U.S. average of 25%.

Cirillo, anticipating the move to open the border, has been working on suggestions for safety enforcement. One possibility is to require the 190 or so Mexican trucking companies that have applied for access to re-apply and pass a safety audit or a compliance review. Another is to bring Mexican trucking companies under the same rule that will soon be applied in the U.S.: All new entrants must pass a test to show that they understand the safety rules.

As DOT considers its options, opponents of the border opening are going public with their concerns. At a crowded press conference on Capitol Hill last week, Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa declared, “Our nation has surrendered control over access to U.S. highways to an outside panel that includes unelected representatives of foreign governments.”

Opening the border will put Americans “directly in the path of unsafe Mexican trucks,” Hoffa said. “Mexican drivers are paid third-world wages and have no basic worker protections.”

President Bush supports an open border, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. “The President is committed to making certain that we have free trade with Mexico. And he does believe that we need to have borders that make that possible, fully consistent with safety issues involving trucks.”

Insiders predict that it will take most of this year to work out arrangements for a phased opening of the border.

Source: Truckinginfo.com