TRADE-U.S.: Mexican Trucks Symbolise Bush’s Struggles

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Analysis - Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 2001 (IPS) - Acrimony lingers like a plume of exhaust fumes following the Senate’s approval this week of stringent safety requirements for Mexican trucks seeking access to U.S. roads.

On one hand supporters of the decision- mainly, Democrats, the Teamsters Union, and anti-free trade groups – claim victory for thwarting what they describe as a bid to unleash a killer convoy of faulty Mexican trucks upon an unsuspecting and vulnerable U.S. populace.

On the other hand, supporters of President George W. Bush’s request to let the trucks in – including most legislators from his Republican Party and trucking companies eyeing new business opportunities – say this is critical for U.S.-Mexican relations and the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the two countries and Canada.

Coupled with a tougher House of Representatives measure that would continue to limit Mexican trucks to within 20 miles of the border, the Senate decision is a setback for Bush – denying his request and energising opponents of his broader trade agenda. This includes a stalled bid for authority to negotiate international trade pacts on condition that Congress would not amend but simply vote yes or no on those deals.

With Bush in need of legislative victories to boost his presidency, Republican and White House officials have sought to focus attention on the administration’s victories this week: Bush has succeeded in securing favourable compromise on his energy policy and proposals to regulate the health insurance industry.

But he faces tough fights on the domestic and foreign policy fronts and the Mexican trucking issue, although relatively small, has become a litmus test of Bush’s commitment to and command of larger trade and foreign policy goals, including his ability to steer the United States toward the hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Come September, when Congress reconvenes following a summer break, lawmakers will have to seek a compromise between the House and Senate measures. The outcome is unlikely to please Bush and his supporters, raising the prospect of a presidential veto – which Bush has threatened.

A veto would expose Bush to accusations of sacrificing public safety and jobs, to say nothing of overriding the public’s elected representatives. But if his Congressional detractors prevail, the president’s frailty will be only too apparent.

Senator John McCain, a key Republican, has said he is “supremely confident” that the Senate would sustain a Bush veto. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, also a Republican, said he could “guarantee” this.

Pressure to arrive at a working compromise will be intense, not least because the bill containing the stringent rules for Mexican truckers also is loaded with more than two billion dollars for popular projects in Senators’ home constituencies. These include road improvements in West Virginia, home state of Democratic Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, and Lott’s state of Mississippi.

Under rules imposed by then President Bill Clinton in 1995, Mexican truckers are only allowed into a 20-mile zone north of the U.S.-Mexican border and typically transfer their cargo to U.S. carriers. Under NAFTA, Bush wants to enable them to deliver goods throughout the United States as of Jan 1, allowing them a further 18 months to be audited by U.S. authorities.

The Senate decision, however, would deny Mexican truckers access to U.S. roads until their companies pass on-site technical and tax audits and buy insurance from U.S. companies. Then, it would only admit trucks that pass safety inspections at the border.

Supporters dismiss accusations they are anti-Mexican but admit the requirements are stricter than those imposed on U.S. or Canadian truckers. They say Mexican vehicles are more likely to fail inspections. Opponents dispute this claim and say some Senate provisions, such as forbidding the transfer of U.S. inspectors to the Mexican border, are aimed at denying entry for years.

James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union, told Congress Bush’s plan is “a recipe for disaster.” Last year, he said, 36 percent of Mexican trucks inspected on the U.S. side of the border were found to be unsafe in some way. Department of Transportation figures showed that 4.5 million Mexican trucks entered the United States in 1999. Assuming last year’s figure was the same, this would have made for some 1.6 million unsafe trucks.

The transportation department has since revised its figures and says only 63,000 trucks crossed the border in 1999, each making a number of trips.

The revision may bolster Bush’s supporters, as might recent suggestions that U.S. trucks do not compare favourably with their Mexican counterparts. Hoffa and others, for example, said that only 25 percent of U.S. trucks failed inspection, compared to 36 percent for the Mexicans.

But the U.S. figure was for long-haul trucks, which tend to be newer, whereas the Mexican figure was for short-haul trucks, which are generally older. Local reports cast U.S. short-haul performance in a much harsher light. For example, police have said that the failure rate for short-haul trucks operating around the rail yards of Kansas City, in the U.S. state of Missouri, is 45 percent.

The transportation department, in a statement to Congress, has said, “Once the border is open to long-haul traffic, the number and percentage of safety-compliant Mexican trucks will dramatically increase, because long-haul trucks will be different from, and in better condition, than the shorter-haul trucks.”

That is because, even if Mexican long-haul trucks were allowed into the United States, Mexican trucking companies would have to meet U.S. legal standards to operate here. This, coupled with complex tax requirements, might dissuade many Mexicans from applying while opening the door for U.S. companies and investors to expand their business in Mexico.

Bush’s supporters also have argued that highway access is mandated under NAFTA.

Joan Claybrook, president of the consumer group Public Citizen, says the Senate’s decision also complies with the trade pact. “NAFTA’s arbitration panel in February ruled that while the border must open, the United States has the right to enforce its safety regulations,” she says.

Claybrook’s group was founded by Ralph Nader, the consumer activist-turned-Green Party presidential candidate whose lobbying empire has been prominent in domestic and international campaigns against what it calls corporate-driven economic globalisation.

“This trade pact was never meant to be a suicide pact,” Claybrook adds, repeating a statement that was used often during the recent debate and that seems destined for a revival in September.