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Regulation, Free Trade and Mexican Trucks
09-09-07
Another
NAFTA nail is about to be hammered into the coffin
Not
only that, but the anti-competitive and burdensome yoke of
over-regulation of
our industry at home is about to send a lot more Americans to the
unemployment
lines. The American Trucking industry has been heavily regulated since
1935.
The express purpose of The Motor Carrier Act was to eliminate
competition
through permitting, regulating tariff rates, even approving
routes.
American trucking companies have been fighting ever since for some
relief from
the substantial regulatory burdens placed on them. Regulatory
compliance
is the single most daunting barrier to entry, and eats up huge amounts
of
profit. Now, to add insult to injury, Mexican trucking
companies, not
subject to the same onerous standards, will be allowed to roll right in
and
squeeze American industry further. This will severely undermine
the
ability of American trucking companies to remain solvent.
The
fact that this is being done in the name of free trade is disturbing.
Free trade is not complicated, yet NAFTA and CAFTA are comprised of
thousands of
pages of complicated legal jargon. All free trade really needs
is two
words: Low tariffs. Free trade does not require coordination
with another
government to benefit citizens here. Just like domestic
businesses don't
pay taxes, foreign businesses do not pay tariffs – consumers do, in the
form
of higher prices. If foreign governments want to hurt their own
citizens
with protectionist tariffs, let them. But let us set a good
example here,
and show the world an honest example of true free trade. And let
us stop
hurting American workers with mountains of red tape in the name of
safety.
Safety standards should be set privately, by the industry and by the
insurance
companies who have the correct motivating factors to do so.
