Mexico holding The US hostage with Illegal Tariffs until ‘Pilot Program’ and ‘Safety Issues’ goes through with Mexican Truck Drivers

Just a few months before the U.S. is scheduled to reopen its border to Mexican long-haul truckers, a report has surfaced that indicates a large majority of trucks heading northbound into El Paso from Mexico have reportable defects.
According to a report by Fox News Latino, Texas Department of Public Safety inspectors found just over 1 million violations on about 1.2 million trucks inspected between 2007 and 2011 at the Bridge of Americas and the Zaragoza International Bridge.

However, many of those violations are likely multiple defects on single units, not the total number of trucks with problems.  And the report doesn’t say how many of those trucks belonged to American-based carriers that were returning stateside. As well, the majority of problems with equipment and drivers appears to be minor or clerical in nature.

Standoff over Mexican Trucks Resumes with Pilot Program Announcement

The three-year pilot program sets up a vetting and enforcement program to ensure the safety of Mexican trucks, with the goal of evaluating their safety performance, based on inspections at the roadside, ports of entry and weigh stations, and on traffic enforcement. Hazardous materials and passenger carriers are not included in the program. 

It’s the newest version of a story that has been going on since the United States and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. In past versions the administration in office, Democrat or Republican, diligently looked for ways to implement the cross-border trucking provision of NAFTA while the Teamsters union, OOIDA, safety advocacy groups and environmental groups just as diligently looked for ways to scuttle the plan. 

What’s different this time is that Mexico has upped the ante by levying retaliatory tariffs on 99 U.S. products. That tactic, which is costing more than $2 billion a year, has brought U.S. food producers and their congressional representatives into the fight. 

Food producers such as Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup and Tysons Food are on record in support of FMCSA’s pilot program, and they have support from a number of congressmen who say that the tariffs have led to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as well as more than $4 billion in business losses.

Under the agreement, Mexico will start to phase out the tariffs when the program begins. 

Only 31,519 trucks and 625 drivers were placed out of service (OOS) as a result of these inspections.

Mexican trucks entering the United States are restricted to a narrow 20-mile border zone. That changes in a few months when the Obama administration relaunches a cross-border program which allows carriers to haul across the U.S. if they comply with strict safety conditions.

Critics of the program are using the latest report to advance their complaints.

“This report confirms what we have been saying for years – Mexican trucking companies and their fleets are not held to the same stringent safety standards as American carriers,” the Teamsters’ Jim Hoffa told Fox News Latino. More From Today\’s Trucking