[OG Nostalgia Attack: The rickety Transporte del Norte bus, on which I traveled from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City, had a broken speedometer (I know because I looked--I wanted to see just what airspeed the driver was maintaining as he flew around the hairpin bends). The heater didn't work, either, and we had heat at night only by means of frequently stopping the bus while the driver connected a wire or something and then disconnecting it when the temperature got too hot. The drivers in Mexico are TERRIBLE, generally speaking.]

Thursday August 2 2:30 PM ET

Mexico's Fox Says May Shut Border to U.S. Trucks

By Richard Jacobsen

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will shut its border to U.S. truckers if Washington does not grant Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways, President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) said on Thursday.

Weighing in on the trucking controversy between the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, Fox said efforts in the U.S. Congress to hinder Mexican access will lead to U.S. truckers being kept north of the Rio Grande.

``If there continues to be resistance and there is no agreement, it will simply mean Mexican trucks will not go over there because they are not permitted or wanted,'' Fox told a news conference. ``But neither will there be American trucks here.''

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a bill calling for tough safety standards for Mexican trucks operating in the United States.

Opponents of the language contained in a transportation funding bill accuse the Democratic majority of bowing to the Teamsters union, which opposes granting Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways.

President Bush (news - web sites) has threatened to veto the bill saying it would violate U.S. obligations under NAFTA.

Mexican truckers won the right to greater access to U.S. highways under NAFTA, which Mexico joined in 1994. But the administration of former President Bill Clinton, under pressure from organized labor, delayed the provisions for years.

After a NAFTA panel ruled against the United States in the case, the Bush administration has worked on regulations to implement the truck provisions.

Currently, Mexican trucks are confined to a 20-mile (32-km) commercial zone in border states, where they transfer their goods to American vehicles.

U.S. truckers have total access to Mexican highways, but few drive deep into the southern neighbor out of their own safety concerns, Mexican officials and truckers' groups say.

Mexico's Congress on Wednesday passed a measure calling for the Fox administration to close the border to U.S. trucks if Washington fails to comply with the NAFTA rules.

MEXICAN TRUCKERS WANT TO STAY HOME

Ironically, Mexican truckers have long opposed the NAFTA transportation provisions, saying their industry could quickly become roadkill to larger, better financed U.S. trucking companies.

Truckers said they would just as soon not get greater access to U.S. highways, as long as their American competitors are kept north of the border.

``If they want to put up roadblocks, put their rules in small print or in Chinese, they can keep them,'' Manuel Gomez Garcia, president of the National Truckers Chamber, told Reuters. ``Here in Mexico, out of dignity, we should close the border'' to U.S. truckers.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2001