BoatBanter.com - Mexican Trucks in the USA?

MEXICAN GROUP DEMANDS HALT TO TRUCKING PROGRAM

Tell Congress to Vote out the Mexican Trucks.

Alert: The private organization representing the majority of the country's
freight haulers today demanded the government suspend a pilot cross-border
trucking program because they said Mexican truckers are at a competitive
disadvantage with their U.S. counterparts.

Tirso Martinez, president of the group known by its Spanish acronym Canacar,
said the one-year pilot program, which went into effect last week, is
destined to fail because Mexico's Transportation Department has failed to
resolve traffic bottlenecks for Mexican trucks trying to cross the U.S.
border, and does not have the personnel to enforce a provision prohibiting
U.S. truckers from carrying domestic Mexican cargo, among other issues.

Although Mexican cargo haulers have invested $2.2 billion in their industry
and created 54,000 new jobs in the past year, "the Mexican government has
not negotiated the conditions that will permit freight haulers to compete on
equal terms with its counterparts in the United States," Martinez told a
news conference.

"Therefore, we demand that the Transportation Department suspend the launch
of this pilot program ... because it is not prepared to carry it out."

Martinez said Canacar was requesting a meeting with President Felipe
Calderon to discuss its concerns and also would like to meet with state
governors and lawmakers in an effort to "define concrete goals and specific
timeframes to resolve both internal and external problems."

In addition to the news conference, the association today published in at
least two daily newspapers an open letter to Calderon, Transportation
Secretary Luis Tellez, and the national Congress spelling out its concerns.

The association's protest comes two days after the U.S. Senate approved a
proposal by Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota, to prohibit the
U.S. Transportation Department from spending money on the pilot program,
which ostensibly would be followed by a permanent program mandated by the
North American Free Trade Agreement.

Dorgan's proposal is part of a $106 billion transportation and housing
spending bill that the Senate plans to vote on soon. The House of
Representatives approved a similar provision to Dorgan's in July as part of
its version of the transportation spending bill.

The Teamsters, which have participated in protests against the program at
the border in the U.S., argue that Mexican trucks are not safe for U.S.
highways.

Both the U.S. and Mexican governments have argued that conditions are
adequate to launch the pilot program, which they said would make Mexican
cargo shipments more efficient both in terms of cost and time.

Until last week, Mexican trucks were restricted to a commercial border zone
stretching about 25 miles inside the United States, except in Arizona, where
it extended 75 miles.

From inside the zone, truckers transfer their goods to U.S. trucks, which
then haul the cargo the rest of the way. U.S. truck drivers who have carved
themselves a niche in that market have said they are worried about going out
of business.

At least one Mexican truck has taken part in the pilot program thus far: A
freightliner from northern Mexican company Transportes Olympic delivered a
shipment of steel to North Carolina earlier this week.

DO NOT BE SILENCED BY ANYONE STAND UP! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

TAKE ACTION: Send YOUR blast faxes to ALL 535 Congressman NOW!

To visit FAXDC.com, click he http://faxdc.com/

To Fax Blast Capitol Hill, click he http://faxdc.com/trucks.htm

To place a Fax order, click he http://faxdc.com/Order.htm

Thank You Patriot! Your friends at FAXDC.com

NOTE: Be sure to send this Alert to EVERYONE you know who supports saving
American and Protecting our Middle Class. Thank you!

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