Mexican trucks to storm U.S.

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The Obama administration fully intends to present Congress with another set of regulations allowing Mexican long-haul trucks to have free access to U.S. roads, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.

"The proposal [to get Mexican trucks back on U.S. roads] has been through the interagency process … and it is ready to go to the Hill," Doug Goudie, trade director at the National Association of Manufacturers, told the Washington Times.

WND reported on March 12 that one day after signing the $410 billion omnibus funding bill into law, along with the provisions ending the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project, the Obama administration announced intentions to restart the program as soon as possible.

Corsi wrote, "The Obama administration's determination to see Mexican long-haul rigs roll throughout the United States is a slap in the face for labor unions such as the Teamsters who supported candidate Obama in the 2008 presidential election, in part on his promise he would as president renegotiate NAFTA to preserve U.S. jobs."

Corsi noted that the sudden and sharp policy reversal will also be a blow to many Democrats in Congress, including Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who fought hard for the last two years to have language inserted into legislation stopping the DOT Mexican truck demonstration project following concerns that Mexican trucks do not conform with U.S. safety regulations.

On March 16, WND reported that Mexico, in retaliation for the vote to ban funding for Mexican trucks, imposed new tariffs on 90 U.S. products exported to Mexico from some 40 U.S. cities.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, claiming the Obama administration was experiencing heavy pressure from U.S. businesses negatively impacted by Mexico's tariffs, told reporters that Mexico's retaliation has had "an enormous impact."

"It is really putting a huge economic stress on the producers," he said, arguing the tariffs had placed an additional $2.4 billion cost on U.S. exporters.

LaHood indicated that the decision on whether to open the border to Mexican trucks as a limited demonstration project or on a wider basis has not yet been made, but he affirmed that the Department of Transportation planned to bring new legislation to Congress.

Critics continue to point out that Mexico has no real system of driver training, licensing, drug testing, driver physical requirements, safety inspection, cargo latching security, hazmat control or brake specifications that compare to U.S. standards.

Concerns continue that, in Mexico, compliance with the U.S. Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance standards will be met by Mexican inspectors taking bribes, a common method of getting around onerous government regulations.

The Mexican truck issue was rancorous during the last two years of the Bush administration as Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters fought off repeated efforts by Congress to confine Mexican trucks to a narrow 20-mile commercial area north of the southern border.

WND reported that after the DOT Mexican truck demonstration project had begun, an examination of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration database revealed hundreds of safety violations by Mexican long-haul rigs rolling on U.S. roads under the project.

WND also reported that in an argumentative Senate hearing in March 2008, North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan got Peters to admit that Mexican drivers were being designated at the border as "proficient in English" even though they could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish.

In the tense hearing, Dorgan accused Peters of being "arrogant" and in reckless disregard of a congressional vote to stop the Mexican trucking demonstration project by taking funds away.

As WND reported, opposition in the House was led by Rep. DeFazio, who in Sept. 2007 accused the Bush administration of having a "stealth plan" to allow Mexican long-haul rigs on U.S. roads.

"This administration [of President George W. Bush] is hell-bent on opening our borders," DeFazio then said, "but has failed to require that Mexican drivers and trucks meet the same safety and security standards as U.S. drivers and trucks."

Despite strong congressional opposition, the Department of Transportation under President Bush had announced plans to extend the Mexican truck demonstration project for another two years in an apparent attempt to force the incoming Obama administration to comply with a departmental decision that had been finalized before Obama Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood took office.

Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.

In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.

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