AMERICA SHOULDN'T FEAR MEXICAN TRUCKS.

Byline: GARY M. GALLES

Local View

Although NAFTA committed the U.S. to allow Mexican trucks full access to its roads by 1995, this commitment has been repeatedly stalled by assertions that Mexican trucks were dirty and unsafe. Now, a one-year demonstration project will allow access for up to 100 Mexican trucking firms to evaluate the results, and apocalyptic claims are being recycled again. For example, Teamsters' President Jim Hoffa calls the move "Russian roulette on America's Highways."

The protectionist motive for such claims is obvious. But why do those asserting that Mexican trucks will foul our environment and terrorize our highways so stridently oppose a test of their assertions? If they are right, it would validate their position. But they know they are wrong, so they must derail any test that would prove it.

The basis for claims that Mexican trucks are too dirty essentially boils down to their greater average age, while safety assertions are primarily based on high border-inspection failure rates. But both are misleading.

Because Mexican trucks are older on average, opponents assert that they pollute too much. In particular, the large proportion of pre-1994 trucks (before Mexican truck emissions were conformed to U.S. EPA standards) are responsible for most of the predicted pollution increases.

A 2006 California Air Resources Board report cited estimates that between 66 percent and 90 percent of Mexican trucks were pre-1994. But those often-cited numbers, and the pollution they imply, are highly inaccurate. Only 27 percent were pre-1994 in a more recent border-area survey CARB also cited.

And even those numbers overstate any added Mexican truck pollution. Mexican trucks are now restricted to border areas. Since newer trucks are more valuable on longer trips, where their better fuel economy is most beneficial, Mexican companies don't use them idling for hours at border checkpoints. But for long-haul trips into the United States, the trucks used would be among the newest and cleanest.

Eliminating current restrictions would also cut the pollution caused by the current mandatory three-truck border dance. Shipments must be transferred from a Mexican truck to a drayage truck (which is older and therefore more polluting) at the border, followed by a transfer to an American truck on the other side. The resulting concentration of higher-polluting older drayage trucks at the border, not to mention the added time wasted idling, increases border pollution, both of which would be reduced if direct shipments were allowed.

At Otay Mesa, the main California entry point for Mexican trucks, the Department of Transportation reports that "Mexican trucks currently operating in the commercial zone are as safe as the trucks operated by companies in the United States."

If we eliminated the current inefficient, protectionist policies on Mexican trucks, combined with an effective regulatory regime, the newest, cleanest Mexican trucks would carry longer hauls in the U.S. The oldest, dirtiest trucks would disappear from the border. And the reduced time idling in line at border checkpoints would further reduce pollution.

No wonder the Mexican-truck protectionists oppose a demonstration of that reality.