Mexican Trucks Could Compromise
U.S. Safety
Friday, September 30, 2011
By Karl Rusnak
Economy In Crisis.org
October will likely mark the start of Mexican trucks gaining full access to U.S. roadways. This influx of trucks could potentially bring new dangers to U.S. citizens and U.S. drivers, while costing the United States even more jobs.
Although the provision to give Mexican truckers access to U.S. roadways has been included in NAFTA since it was signed in 1994, the U.S. has not honored this part of the agreement so far for numerous reasons. One of the major reasons is that suppliers choose which shipping company to use based almost entirely by price, and the addition of Mexican trucking companies to the U.S. market will almost certainly drive down wages and profits for American trucking companies. With a finite amount of freight to be hauled, the Mexican trucks could also put some companies completely out of business.
But beyond the job concerns, the addition of new trucks raises safety and law enforcement issues. Taxpayer money from the Highway Trust Fund will be used to pay for electronic on-board recorders for Mexican trucks. According to Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood, it became clear during negotiations that if the U.S. wanted to ensure regulatory compliance it would have to pay for it itself. These on-board recorders along with other measures to ensure compliance with U.S. laws will be expensive. A report by the Congressional Research Service showed that these costs would outweigh any cost savings U.S. businesses receive as a product of using Mexican truckers.
Increasing the freedom of Mexican trucks to move into the U.S. could also help drug violence and contraband spill over from Mexico into the United States. The increasing power of drug cartels in Mexico has been moving the country ever closer to becoming a failed state, and safety has suffered as a result. Over 10,000 commercial vehicles were hijacked in Mexico in 2010, and drug cartels have become adept at cloning legitimate commercial vehicles to move drugs across the border. By allowing more trucks into the U.S. and allowing them to move more freely, it will only increase the temptation for drug cartels to use them as a method for gaining greater access to the U.S. market.
NAFTA has many components that have been damaging to the United States, but so far the U.S. has been able to hold off on the ill effects that would ensue from expanded cross border trucking. Given the failure of the rest of NAFTA, negative consequences from the enactment of another provision seem all but given.
