One controversial aspect of the North American Free Trade Agreement has been whether Mexican trucks would be safe enough to travel on roads in this country. Since the agreement was implemented in 1994, this question has not been fully answered.
That’s why the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration took a big risk Monday when it extended for two years the Cross-Border Trucking Demonstration Project, which allows up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to operate their vehicles throughout the United States.
The administration states that participating Mexican trucks and drivers have established safety compliance rates similar to their U.S. counterparts’. But concerns about the pilot program that was launched in September 2007 were aired as recently as March in an interim report by the Transportation Department’s office of inspector general.
The report concluded that no reliable safety determinations could be made because there weren’t enough carriers participating in the program. The administration was also criticized for lacking the quality control it promised Congress to ensure that “checks of all Mexican drivers and vehicles crossing the border are occurring as planned.”
Late last month the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously passed a bill to end the program, citing safety concerns. The bipartisan opposition to the pilot program indicates the administration has failed to make its case.
To make sure that all safety issues are addressed, the administration ought to do a better job of presenting to Congress a detailed plan of action guaranteeing that all Mexican trucks that come into this country are as safe as licensed U.S. carriers. The same should apply to drivers.
In announcing the program extension, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator John Hill said it would be a mistake to “turn our back on open trade and investment and embrace a protectionist agenda.” But Hill failed to mention that it would be a bigger mistake to embrace free trade without guaranteeing the safety of Americans in the process.
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