Opinion: No to NAFTA

James P. Hoffa (TT File Photo)

Next New Year’s Day, Americans may have a lot more to worry about than millennial hangovers and the Y2K bug. Worse than either, they may face a flood of unsafe Mexican trucks driven by untrained, unlicensed, virtually unpaid drivers, given access to our roads by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Unless we stop it, NAFTA will bring Third World safety standards and wages, quite literally, to every road, street and lane in America.

NAFTA, negotiated by President Bush and implemented by President Clinton, provided that the border would be opened to Mexican trucks in stages, beginning in 1995, with the final opening coming on Jan. 1, 2000. But, thanks to a massive lobbying effort by the Teamsters, other unions and safety and environmental groups, the Clinton administration has kept the border closed (except for a narrow “commercial zone” along the border). Now, under pressure from the trucking industry and other corporate special interests, the administration plans to let Mexican trucks pour through next year. Ready or not, here they come, and the scary fact is that both the United States and Mexico are far from ready.

Sporadic spot-checks (the only kind of checks we do) of Mexican trucks at the border reveal that the Mexican truck fleet amounts to countless accidents waiting to happen. In 1997, almost half (44%) of the Mexican trucks inspected at the border were taken out of service because of serious safety violations. And that is not the Teamsters talking; that comes from a recent report by the Department of Transportation’s inspector general. The DOT report also establishes that Mexican law does not require the basic truck safety and hazardous material practices Americans take for granted.

Many Mexican drivers make $7 per day. Drug and alcohol testing of Mexican drivers falls far short of U.S. standards, nor are their driving and arrest records available to U.S. authorities. Worst of all, Mexico does not restrict how long drivers can stay behind the wheel, meaning that a Mexican driver could drive for any number of hours and already be drunk with fatigue when he enters the U.S. In sharp contrast, U.S. drivers must stop for rest after 10 hours of driving.

he DOT’s own report admits that federal and state governments, with the exception of California, have not done what it takes to keep out unsafe Mexican trucks. We also know that:

Less than 1% of the millions of trucks that cross the border into the U.S. commercial zone are inspected for safety.

ABC’s “Nightline” found that U.S. safety inspectors staffing the border crossing at Laredo, Texas, work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., letting thousands of Mexican trucks roll through uninspected after they leave their posts.

At Laredo, even trucks that are rejected for safety violations can enter the U.S. and leave the inspectors’ line of sight to “turn around.” Not many of them do.

Sadly, these are not abstract concerns. The rhetoric of free trade must give way to the harsh reality that lives are at stake. Tragedies involving Mexican trucks already are all too common. A Mexican truck that illegally ventured far outside the commercial zone killed four commuters in Orange County, Calif. Another Mexican driver was killed when his load of jet fuel ignited, and a 16-year-old driver with no insurance and his load of sulfuric acid were involved in a major spill.

And we should not forget what these Mexican trucks will carry. Food safety advocates warn that unrestricted truck traffic from Mexico will bring ever-increasing amounts of uninspected food products, like the imported strawberries and raspberries that caused an outbreak of hepatitis A in 1997. Even tainted food is not the worst of it — senior Drug Enforcement Administration officials fear that increased truck traffic from Mexico will mean increased drug traffic.

Unsafe trucks. Untrained, underpaid drivers. Deadly toxic spills. Disease-carrying food. Illegal drugs. Thanks to NAFTA, a lot of Americans will not make it over that bridge to the 21st century. That is, unless we stop this madness before it starts. That is what the Teamsters and others who care about protecting our families plan to do. Will you join us in telling Congress and the president to keep our border closed to Mexican trucks?