When President Obama signed the omnibus spending bill last week, he also killed an 18-month-old pilot program that allowed Mexican trucks to drive on U.S. highways. In retaliation, the Mexican government announced yesterday that it is levying higher tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of U.S. goods, including beer, shampoo, and toilet paper.
Columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady outlines the history of the Mexican truck debate in Monday’s Wall Street Journal and argues that allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. highways improves trade relations, supply chain efficiency, and border security.
Smeal’s Fariborz Ghadar agrees that the trucks should be permitted on U.S. roadways:
If we are going to take NAFTA seriously, Mexican trucks should be allowed to cross the border and continue unimpeded to their U.S. destinations. First, Washington says that they’re not allowed because they are too dirty. Then, once they were cleaned up, the argument became that they’re unsafe. We put up hoop after hoop, and they’ve jumped through all of them.
We finally installed this pilot program, which allowed the trucks on U.S. roads for a year and a half with no safety problems whatsoever, until another election put politics ahead of good policy. The fact that this fight has been going on for so long has everything to do with labor politics and nothing to do with the safety of Mexican trucks. No matter what NAFTA says, if the government continues to put up one obstacle after another in the way of cross-border commerce, they eventually end up blocking free trade.