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Friday, December 6, 2002

Southern border's busiest inland port fears truck inspections

By LYNN BREZOSKY

Associated Press Writer

LAREDO, Texas (AP) - Clay-colored boots were all that was visible of Mexican trucker Augustin Robles Pachuca as he lay beneath his 18-wheeler, working on the rig's brakes.

"They said they needed a little adjusting," Pachuca said, emerging with a swipe of his brow.

The 42-year-old driver sat in a line of other trucks at "el import lot," the latest product of the North American Free Trade Agreement and President Bush's decision last week to let Mexican trucks travel into the U.S. interior.

Pachuca was sweating to bring his truck's brakes in compliance with U.S. safety standards. The truck must pass a 22-point inspection -- Washington's assurance that Mexican trucks will not pose safety risks or excessive wear to U.S. highways.

Pachuca said he didn't mind, because the inspectors tell him what needs fixing on his truck.

But others are not happy about plans for new inspection stations, including eight in Texas, where federal workers will open hoods, honk horns and turn back trucks with rusted wheel bearings.

Victor Hugo De Leon, a 21-year-old Mexican driver, said he worried about being late to pick up the load of Canadian beef in Laredo that he would return to Mexico. He was expected at 9 a.m., and it was already 11 a.m.

Officials in Laredo fear that the new trucking regulations will increase pollution from long lines of idled, diesel-belching rigs.

They also worry that impatient truckers could look for new crossings, bypassing Laredo.

And they fear that letting Mexican trucks into the U.S. interior -- instead of limiting them to commercial zones hugging the border -- will hurt the local trucking industry, which has sprung up around the need for drivers to ferry short-haul transfer loads across the border.

About 2,500 drayage trucks make 9,000 trips across the border each day, transferring cargo between long-haul trucks in Texas and Mexico.

Laredo Mayor Betty Flores said that transportation officials in the two countries don't consider the economic impact in her city when making policy.

"They're not worrying about people's jobs as they should be," Flores said. "We in Laredo respond to the policy decisions, good or bad, of two very powerful countries."

U.S. officials said President Bush's decision to let Mexican trucks into the U.S. interior made good on a commitment to improve international trucking and bus service.

"This will help increase trade between our countries," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said in a statement.

Eighty percent of U.S.-Mexico traffic comes through Texas and about one-third comes through Laredo on its way along Interstate 35 toward San Antonio and beyond, to Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto.

Laredo's World Trade Bridge is a wide arc of newly laid road opening into miles of warehouses, truck washes, and weigh stations.

The city's Old West downtown, with parks and discount wholesalers along the Rio Grande, is now surrounded by ever-reaching rings of big-box retailers, chain restaurants, new school buildings and skyrocketing property values.

The city owes its economic success to the NAFTA, which has allowed U.S. industry to set up factories employing Mexican workers directly across the border. Auto parts are an especially big business -- made in Mexico and shipped to plants in the Midwest for final assembly.

But traffic is already a problem, and city officials fear slowdowns on top of delays caused by tougher security measures since last year's terrorist attacks.

For the past year, the Laredo mayor has waged a campaign against building the final truck-inspection station alongside the city's main international bridges leading to downtown, preferring a more remote location.

"Now we have temporary inspection stations at both bridges and we've already seen huge delays. It's been murder," Flores said.

"The retailers are screaming, the consumers are screaming, everybody's screaming at us," Flores said. "No one is taking our concerns into consideration."

from the Reporter-News