Court: Mexican trucks program to proceed

"This is the wrong decision for American working men and women. We will now proceed to litigate this case on the merits," Teamsters General President James Hoffa said in a statement. "We believe this program clearly breaks the law. We will continue to fight for safety and national security in the courts and in Congress."

Current rules require freight from Mexico to be transferred to U.S. trucks and drivers in the U.S. Under a one-year U.S. pilot program, Mexican trucking companies could move shipments around the U.S. themselves, saving time and money. The program was supposed to start as soon as Thursday.

The Teamsters union, representing 100,000 long-haul truckers, and the Sierra Club and other public advocacy groups asked the court Wednesday to put the plan on hold until they receive more assurances that the vehicles comply with U.S. environmental, security and safety regulations and that U.S. truckers would get reciprocal rights to travel in Mexico.

The U.S. Transportation Department said in a Thursday court filing that Mexican trucks will be pre-screened and inspected for safety before being allowed to travel in the U.S. Mexico promised to reciprocate for U.S. trucks, the agency said.

WHAT "cross border freight transport procedures with Mexico" need to "upgraded"? There isn't any significant "cross border freight transport" from Mexico to begin with!

According to the Journal of Commerce, approximately 11,000 trucks cross the border each day from Mexico into the United States. Eighty percent of cross-border cargo moves by trucks. While there are 28 border crossing points, only seven are considered "major." Texas has 63% of border mileage, 57% of the entry points, and handles 66% of transborder traffic. California handles 24% of the traffic, and Arizona, 10%. New Mexico' s cross-border traffic is negligible.

As a former truck driver you do not get the big picture.

Building a North American Community:

(Document Page 25: PDF Page 47):

Open skies and open roads. The efficiency of the transportation network is critical to making North America a more competitive place to invest and to produce, and in spreading the benefits of economic growth to all corners of the continent. Among other regulatory reforms, governments should consider the benefits of allowing North American transportation firms unlimited access to each others’ territory, including provision for full cabotage (trade between two points within a country; for example, a Canadian trucker hauling freight from Chicago to Los Angeles or an American airline carrying passengers between Mexico City and Monterrey) for airlines and surface carriers.




(Document Pages 26-28: PDF Pages 48-50):

Increase Labor Mobility within North America


People are North America’s greatest asset. Goods and services cross borders easily; ensuring the legal transit of North American workers has been more difficult. Experience with the NAFTA visa system suggests that its procedures need to be simplified, and such visas should be made available to a wider range of occupations and to additional categories of individuals such as students, professors, bona fide frequent visitors, and retirees.

To make the most of the impressive pool of skill and talent within North America, the three countries should look beyond the NAFTA visa system. The large volume of undocumented migrants from Mexico within the United States is an urgent matter for those two countries to address. A long-term goal should be to create a ‘‘North American preference’’—new rules that would make it much easier for employees to move and for employers to recruit across national boundaries within the continent. This would enhance North American competitiveness, increase productivity, contribute to Mexico’s development, and address one of the main outstanding issues on the Mexican-U.S. bilateral agenda.

Canada and the United States should consider eliminating restrictions on labor mobility altogether and work toward solutions that, in the long run, could enable the extension of full labor mobility to Mexico as well.



WHAT WE SHOULD DO NOW


• Expand temporary migrant worker programs. Canada and the United States should expand programs for temporary labor migration from Mexico. For instance, Canada’s successful model for managing seasonal migration in the agricultural sector should be expanded to other sectors where Canadian producers face a shortage of workers and Mexico may have a surplus of workers with appropriate skills. Canadian and U.S. retirees living in Mexico should be granted working permits in certain fields, for instance as English teachers.


• Implement the Social Security Totalization Agreement negotiated between the United States and Mexico. This agreement would recognize payroll contributions to each other’s systems, thus preventing double taxation.



WHAT WE SHOULD DO BY 2010


• Create a ‘‘North American preference.’’ Canada, the United States, and Mexico should agree on streamlined immigration and labor mobility rules that enable citizens of all three countries to work elsewhere in North America with far fewer restrictions than immigrants from other countries. This new system should be both broader and simpler than the current system of NAFTA visas. Special immigration status should be given to teachers, faculty, and students
in the region.


• Move to full labor mobility between Canada and the United States. To make companies based in North America as competitive as possible in the global economy, Canada and the United States should consider eliminating all remaining barriers to the ability of their citizens to live and work in the other country. This free flow of people would offer an important advantage to employers in both countries by giving them rapid access to a larger pool of skilled labor, and would enhance the well-being of individuals in both countries by enabling them to move quickly to where their skills are needed. In the long term, the two countries should work to extend this policy to Mexico as well, though doing so will not be practical until wage differentials between Mexico and its two North American neighbors have diminished considerably.