Link to article here. Excuse me, but no one asked the American people if we wanted to undermine our national sovereignty with NAFTA. This is no free trade agreement, it’s a treaty and didn’t receive the Constitutionally required two-thirds vote from Congress to make it legal in the first place. At least 1.2 million Americans have been put out of work due to NAFTA, and countless more who never applied for federal assistance.
And this is before putting American truckers out of business with this hoax of a Mexican trucking program being cloaked as beneficial when it’s bringing in more trucks to beat up our roads and is certain to push our air quality into non-attainment (where it’s been teetering on the edge as it is). Border patrol is already admitting waving Mexican trucks trough because of the backlog. The safety of these trucks cannot be assured.
A NAFTA tribunal is forcing the U.S. to comply with a treaty that’s unconstitutional and mandate a controversial bi-lateral trucking program against the will of Congress (that overwhelmingly voted to ban the program!). If the Editorial Board of this newspaper will give up our national sovereignty this easily, no wonder we’re under assault by globalists and terrorists! REPEAL NAFTA NOW!
Banning all Mexican trucks violates NAFTA
Editorial Board
The Herald-Zeitung
September 13, 2007
The Senate vote Tuesday night that proposes to stall the pilot program allowing Mexican trucks on American highways is Democracy at its worst.
A week ago, we encouraged restricting any Mexican trucks that don’t meet the standards required of U.S. trucks and drivers. We stand by that opinion; safety for drivers and passengers traveling on U.S. roads must be the goal of whatever laws are passed.
Whether you agree or disagree with the North American Free Trade Agreement, it has been signed and in place for a decade. Texas Sen. John Cornyn attempted to have an alternative amendment to the $106 billion transportation bill that would have put strict checks in place that could have suspended the pilot program if a Mexican truck passed outside the border zone but was not checked.
American truckers unions, including the Teamsters, have opposed allowing the Mexican trucks into the U.S. citing safety fears. However, the safety aspect is insufficient by itself to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. highways. A blanket ban is a violation of the NAFTA obligations the U.S. signed up for. The fear that Mexican truckers will take work from U.S. drivers and trucking companies is very real. If the U.S. companies are more expensive than their Mexican counterparts just as automakers found with their production facilities in the last two decades the unions fears could be realized.
The United States needs to stand by its transportation safety laws and its democratic and capitalist principals on this issue. Unsafe Mexican (or American) trucks should be banned from U.S. highways, but while a complete ban on Mexican trucks may have been passed by the Senates democratic vote, it ignores the principles of fair trade that America should hold dear.
Ultimately, President Bush could veto the transportation bill because of its cost. Protecting American trucking jobs is important, but the U.S. also needs to live up to its NAFTA obligation.