NAFTA and Mexican Trucks
Adequate inspection stations and inspectors should be in place all along the border
before Mexico-based trucks are allowed full access to U.S. highways
In spite of efforts by safety groups and members of Congress to delay allowing Mexico-based
trucks full access to the U.S., the Bush Administration on January 7, 2008, announced
it would continue to approve carrier access under a pilot program. The announcement
was a slap at Congress, which earlier passed an Omnibus Appropriations Bill that
cut off all funding for the pilot program. To date, 57 Mexican Carriers have been
given full access to U.S. highways under the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA).
Safety groups are concerned that Mexican-based trucks are likely to be more dangerous
than U.S. trucks because Mexican inspection systems are more lax. They argue there
are not enough border inspection systems in place to identify these trucks before
they get on U.S. roads.
Background
NAFTA took effect in 1994. The agreement required the U.S. to allow Mexican trucks
access to all border-state roads starting in 1995, and to drive anywhere in the
country by January 2000. The Clinton administration recognized the danger the trucks
posed and for seven years refused to expand their access beyond a narrow border
zone. In February 2001, a NAFTA tribunal ruled this limitation was in violation
of the NAFTA pact. The Bush Administration began allowing some Mexican trucking
companies' full access to U.S. roads in 2006 under a controversial pilot program.
Public Citizen and the Sierra Club were among several groups that sued the DOT in
2007 in an attempt to block the pilot program.