Editorial: Open the Borders

It’s time to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement as it applies to trucking.

The 1993 trade pact sets out the rules and timetable for when and how trucks from the United States, Mexico and Canada were to have been allowed to ply each other’s roads, so long as they are hauling international — not domestic — freight. But the United States has delayed the plan at every turn, and apparently is soon to be punished for it.

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	South of the Border: Trucking in Mexico Second Edition

A Nafta arbitration panel, according to high-ranking Mexican trade officials, has ruled unanimously in Mexico’s favor in a complaint accusing the U.S. of improperly refusing to allow Mexican truckers to deliver and pick up cargo in this country.

The preliminary ruling by the panel, issued Nov. 29, is expected to be finalized in January after both sides have had a chance to respond to the decision.

If the ruling stands — and there’s no reason to think it won’t — the U.S. faces fines equivalent to the amount of the economic damage the panel says was inflicted on the Mexican trucking industry by the U.S. actions.

President Clinton refused to meet two important deadlines contained in Nafta — to open the four southwestern border states to Mexican trucks in 1995, and to open all of the U.S. to all truckers from Mexico in January 2000.

Clinton cited safety concerns as his reason for not complying with Nafta even though the provision lets the U.S. enforce its own safety regulations on foreign trucks that cross its borders.

There is evidence that the entire safety issue is a red herring, pushed by the Teamsters union, to keep Mexican trucks out.

According to California Highway Patrol inspections, Mexican trucks entering California commercial zones along the border were at least as safe as American trucks examined by CHP in 1998. That year, the CHP inspection failure rate was 27% for Mexican trucks and 28% for domestic rigs. A year later, the domestic failure rate improved to 23%, while the Mexican rate remained at 27%.

The U.S. needs to open the border, and it doesn’t need to sacrifice safety to do it. It’s up to the federal government and the border states to ensure effective and fair enforcement of the nation’s safety standards and that both U.S. carriers and their Mexican and Canadian counterparts are doing their part.