|
 |
 |
|
Late last month, by a 65-35 procedural vote the U.S. Senate in effect passed a measure that would impose special safety regulations upon Mexican trucks entering the United States-a type of measure that a North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) dispute-arbitration panel has already said would violate the treaty signed eight years by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, when it ruled against president Bill Clinton's executive order limiting Mexican trucks to a 20-mile zone along the frontier.
If passed by the House, the measure would create such difficulties for Mexican trucks that they would have to unload the $140 billion in goods exported by Mexico to the U.S. on their side of the frontier, to be loaded on U.S. trucks for delivery around the country.
This was the product of intense lobbying by U.S. organized labor, mainly the Teamsters. The Senate vote is not final; there could be new developments when it reconvenes after the August recess, and President Bush, who has said that by next January he wants to see Mexican trucks freely rolling all over the United States, has vowed to veto any measure that would discriminate against Mexican trucks by imposing on them more severe regulations that those that apply to American or Canadian trucks.
Arizona Republican senator John McCain, who on behalf of the White House has led the fight against this legislation, believes that there would be the 34 votes needed to uphold a presidential veto. And the Senate minority leader, Mississippi Republican Trent Lott called the Democrat proposal "anti-Mexican, anti-Hispanic and anti-Nafta." What the Democrats really want, he said, "is to stop Mexican trucks from entering the country."
However, the proposal has also some Republican backers. Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby is a co-sponsor of the legislation with Washington Democrat senator Patti Murray. She rejects Lott's accusation saying "this is not discrimination against Mexican trucks" but "has to do with the American people's safety."
To deal with the concern that Mexican trucks-which are the very same that operate in the U.S., where they were bought-might not be adequately maintained and that Mexican drivers might not have the same training as their American counterparts, Bush's Transportation Department set severe inspection regulations, both for vehicles and drivers, but Democrats say this is not enough.
"Nafta has cost us American jobs," said James Hoffa, president of The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents the truckers. "It should not cost us American lives."
A Mexican trade official, Luis de la Calle, points out that "a million Mexican cars circulate on U.S. highways and planes flown by Mexican pilots land every day on American airports. Why should trucks be different? Because they are Mexican?"
However, Hoffa doesn't show the same concern about American lives when it comes to domestic and Canadian trucks. Perhaps because Canadian drivers are also represented by the Teamsters, that failed in their attempt to organize Mexican drivers.
And there should be concern about U.S. and Canadian drivers and their trucks.
At a congressional hearing, Hoffa said last month that 36 percent of Mexican trucks inspected at the American side of the frontier were "recipes for disaster," because they showed mechanical failures, while for U.S. trucks that figure was only 25 percent. However, according to U.S. experts, while the 36 percent of the Mexican trucks that turned up with mechanical problems were short-haul vehicles, the 25 percent of American trucks found faulty were long-haul trucks. Failure rate for U.S. short-haul trucks is 45 percent.
Relevant to the discussion on long-haul trucks safety are other statistics offered by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In Canada, there are 29 truck-related fatalities for each 100,000 trucks on their highways. In the United States the figure is almost nine for each 100,000 trucks. In Mexico, although it has less high-quality highways than Canada or the U.S., fatalities don't even reach five for each 100,000 trucks on its roads.
How can it be understood then that the U.S. Senate, in the name of safety for Americans, included in its version of the Transport Bill it approved a series of 22 inspections, insurance and other requirements only applicable to Mexican trucks and drivers, and exempted Canadian trucks and drivers-and even trucks and drivers in the U.S., where heavy trucks have been involved in accidents causing on average 5,000 deaths yearly for the last 15 years?
Claudio Campuzano (claudio-campuzano@hotmail.com) is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com