Good, or bad?
- Thread starter Swanny
- Start date
turritrans
Expert Expediter
MEXICO CITY -- U.S. and Mexican officials signed an agreement Wednesday allowing each country's trucks to traverse the other's highways, implementing a key provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement after nearly two decades of bickering.
Transportation secretaries Ray LaHood and Dionisio Perez-Jacome signed the three-year memorandum, which is based on an agreement announced in March by Presidents Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon.
NAFTA, signed in 1994, had called for Mexican trucks to have unrestricted access to highways in border states by 1995 and full access to all U.S. highways by January 2000. Canadian trucks have no limits on where they can go.
But until now, Mexican trucks have seldom been allowed farther than a buffer zone on the U.S. side of the border. In retaliation, Mexico had imposed higher tariffs on dozens of U.S. products.
The Mexican government has now agreed to suspend those tariffs as long as the agreement is in place.
The public debate surrounding the accord had mostly focused on the safety of Mexican trucks. But labor unions and other groups were strongly opposed to the agreement, which they say will cost Americans trucking and other jobs.
The U.S. Department of Transportation says the safety concerns have now been resolved. Electronic monitoring systems will track how many hours the trucks are in service. Drivers will also have to pass safety reviews, drug tests and assessments of their English-language and U.S. traffic sign-reading skills. Mexico has the authority to demand the same of U.S. truck drivers entering their territory.
But those won't do much to resolve the U.S. debate over the migration of jobs, which dates back to the NAFTA debates of the early 1990s. The question: Will a freer flow of cross-border cargo traffic boost business and allow owners to hire more workers, or will it ship U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers who work for lower pay?
LaHood argued the first position Wednesday in an email to The Associated Press.
"By opening the door to long-haul trucking between the United States and Mexico, America's third largest trading partner, we will create jobs and opportunity for our people and support economic development in both nations," he said.
The Teamsters Union was incensed. General President Jim Hoffa said the agreement was "probably illegal" because it goes further than a previously agreed-on pilot program and described it as "opening the border to dangerous trucks at a time of high unemployment and rampant drug violence."
Other U.S. groups from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to the National Christmas Tree Association celebrated the end of the punitive tariffs and hoped for higher sales. The tariffs tax $2.4 billion worth of U.S. exports according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, including tariffs up to 45 percent on certain fruits according to a trade group.
Those tariffs will be cut in half within 10 days and then eliminated completely when full cross-border traffic begins.
Very bad IMO!
Who in their right mind would take a truck into Mexico?
I think this is really going to affect the team loads going to and from Texas.
Transportation secretaries Ray LaHood and Dionisio Perez-Jacome signed the three-year memorandum, which is based on an agreement announced in March by Presidents Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon.
NAFTA, signed in 1994, had called for Mexican trucks to have unrestricted access to highways in border states by 1995 and full access to all U.S. highways by January 2000. Canadian trucks have no limits on where they can go.
But until now, Mexican trucks have seldom been allowed farther than a buffer zone on the U.S. side of the border. In retaliation, Mexico had imposed higher tariffs on dozens of U.S. products.
The Mexican government has now agreed to suspend those tariffs as long as the agreement is in place.
The public debate surrounding the accord had mostly focused on the safety of Mexican trucks. But labor unions and other groups were strongly opposed to the agreement, which they say will cost Americans trucking and other jobs.
The U.S. Department of Transportation says the safety concerns have now been resolved. Electronic monitoring systems will track how many hours the trucks are in service. Drivers will also have to pass safety reviews, drug tests and assessments of their English-language and U.S. traffic sign-reading skills. Mexico has the authority to demand the same of U.S. truck drivers entering their territory.
But those won't do much to resolve the U.S. debate over the migration of jobs, which dates back to the NAFTA debates of the early 1990s. The question: Will a freer flow of cross-border cargo traffic boost business and allow owners to hire more workers, or will it ship U.S. jobs to Mexican drivers who work for lower pay?
LaHood argued the first position Wednesday in an email to The Associated Press.
"By opening the door to long-haul trucking between the United States and Mexico, America's third largest trading partner, we will create jobs and opportunity for our people and support economic development in both nations," he said.
The Teamsters Union was incensed. General President Jim Hoffa said the agreement was "probably illegal" because it goes further than a previously agreed-on pilot program and described it as "opening the border to dangerous trucks at a time of high unemployment and rampant drug violence."
Other U.S. groups from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to the National Christmas Tree Association celebrated the end of the punitive tariffs and hoped for higher sales. The tariffs tax $2.4 billion worth of U.S. exports according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, including tariffs up to 45 percent on certain fruits according to a trade group.
Those tariffs will be cut in half within 10 days and then eliminated completely when full cross-border traffic begins.
Very bad IMO!
Who in their right mind would take a truck into Mexico?
I think this is really going to affect the team loads going to and from Texas.
US ports will see a marked decrease in traffic and a loss of jobs. Many will close within 15 years. Our security is under a great threat as more and more freight comes though the Mexican ports to take advantage of the cheap labor in the ports and the trucks.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
That's one hell of a prediction.
I don't see the security issue being a problem from Mexico as much as I see it with the lack of security and the need to have the feds involved with every law enforcement activity.
SO let's try it a bit more realisitic.
US ports won't see the decline because of the Mexicans on this side of the border - they've been operating here for years.
It will happen because the ports, like the LA port will not allow just any truck to enter it, but one that meets a specific emission requirement which is stupid. The same goes for the TWIX card, another ID that is not really ensuring much other than to collect a fee.
This means it is better for a shipper, like Maersk or COSCO to move their port of operation from LA to say Lazaro Cardenas or San Felipe where they don't have the issues of vetting everyone who drives into the port or having to deal with trucks that have to meet a specific requirement. If it goes to Lazaro Cardenas, it can go via rail up to the states without any issue.
I don't see the security issue being a problem from Mexico as much as I see it with the lack of security and the need to have the feds involved with every law enforcement activity.
SO let's try it a bit more realisitic.
US ports won't see the decline because of the Mexicans on this side of the border - they've been operating here for years.
It will happen because the ports, like the LA port will not allow just any truck to enter it, but one that meets a specific emission requirement which is stupid. The same goes for the TWIX card, another ID that is not really ensuring much other than to collect a fee.
This means it is better for a shipper, like Maersk or COSCO to move their port of operation from LA to say Lazaro Cardenas or San Felipe where they don't have the issues of vetting everyone who drives into the port or having to deal with trucks that have to meet a specific requirement. If it goes to Lazaro Cardenas, it can go via rail up to the states without any issue.
Long overdue....I like it.....
You can believe ANYTHING you like. I don't agree with what you believe. That is that. It will never change.
Awww the beauty of a free nation...the right to think and say what one believes in.....
For now at least.
Don't be an old fuddie duddie.....Joe...
Don't be an old fuddie duddie.....Joe...
But I AM an old fuddie duddie!! What else should I be?
The original Sad Sack...remember the comics?
Long overdue....I like it.....
Could you explain why you see this as a positive? I'm not being facetious, just want to understand why you like it.
Yep, sure due! I remember the original when it was on stone tablets!!
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Well see I look at it differently, much of what people say on this subject seems to be on the side of BS with no facts to back up what the claims are - one BIG issue is how the rates will tank.
HOW?
You can't operate a truck for nothing, can you?
When a truck gets 6 miles per gallon at best and the driver needs to eat and live, where can someone make less than what is there already?
I see on one load board tonight TL freight at $1.50 a mile, that is a full truck load - this is an average rate I found not the lowest. This load, which I confrimed does not need 20 feet of space but 50 feet and it is 80k lbs is going 850 miles. SO at the cost of 66 a mile for fuel alone, then you add in the other stuff like insurance, how can anyone expect the rates to go further down with the mexicans running on this side of the border?
I can't see it happening.
I also can't see the issues of junk on the roads, you take a look at what is running up and down 75 lately? This morning on the way home, I'm passed by some container hauler with his bumpers hanging on with bungee cords and his skirting flapping in the wind. When I was down in the south west, I saw those trucks up and down the coast pulling containers and not one of them had Mexican plates. When I was in the free trade zone on the boarder, I didn't see one truck that looked bad, actually saw a lot of older trucks with good looking paint jobs.
IF we want to 'save' this industry, fight for toughing up the licensing requirements, stop complaining about EOBRs and CSA and get the crap drivers off the road. Make it where a carrier has to deal with the issue of proving that the driver is a good one, not just someone to warm the seat or be replaced if he screws up.
Sure can...I happen to believe trade from all 3 countries should move freely between them....no duties, no tariffs on anything made in any of the 3.....barriers just increase the cost of doing business...Reduce costs of all our products and make us all more competitive.....We don't even have REAL Free Trade with Canada....
You are allowed to look at it ANY WAY you like. Just as I am. I am NOT going to change my mind. I have NO idea why you want to try. It just ain't going to happen.
PoorBoy...don't just sit there and "Like" stuff...say something...
Boy don't I know that...talk about stubborn....LOL