NAFTA Opens Door To Unsafe Trucks Page 13
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Beware: that big rig filling up your rear view mirror could be an overweight truck with faulty air brakes and an exhausted driver behind the wheel. An obscure NAFTA trade panel has given Mexican truck operators unlimited access to U.S. highways. That could mean more traffic deaths and serious accidents ahead. Mexico has a highway fatality rate more than three times that of the U.S. or Canada. Its lax safety regulations for truck operators pose an even greater threat. The panel’s truck ruling shows how trade deals like NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and the upcoming Free Trade of the Americas Agreement really operate. They protect corporate interests, exploit workers and prevent the U.S. from protecting its citizens. Under the 1994 NAFTA agreement, trucks from Mexico were supposed to get unlimited access to the entire U.S. road system by January 1, 2000. Other NAFTA provisions called for Mexico, Canada and the U.S. to negotiate unified standards for truck safety and commercial driver licensing. The U.S. requirement to open its border was not conditioned on completing the negotiations for common safety standards. The safety standards never happened, so the Clinton Administration limited trucks from Mexico to a 20-mile commercial zone just inside the U.S. border. In 1998, Mexico lodged a trade complaint with a NAFTA enforcement panel challenging Clinton’s refusal to open the U.S. border. The NAFTA panel ignored U.S. safety concerns and ruled that the U.S. must open its border or pay compensation to Mexico. The Bush Administration has signaled it will allow access to U.S. highways and promises strict safety compliance. Right! Mexico has no regulations on hours of service for drivers; no drug testing policy; no roadside or carrier property inspection program and no system for tracking accident, inspection or licensing data. The only way to ensure truck safety is individual inspections. Currently, less than one percent of Mexican trucks entering the U.S. are inspected. In 1997, forty-four percent of inspected Mexican trucks had safety deficiencies serious enough to remove them from service. This compares to a twenty-five percent out-of-service rate for U.S. trucks. One state inspector at the Texas border recently told the Associated Press that “We only inspect the ones that look really, really bad ... Like ‘Oh, my God, how’s that going to stay together.’ We’re only taking the worst of the worst.” Lax safety standards in Mexico and a spotty border inspection
system mean U.S. highways will become more dangerous. Companies that exploit
drivers are the only winners. The losers are motorists unlucky enough to
be hit by an unsafe truck.
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