Mexican Trucks and U.S. Jobs

by Brad Peck

On Tuesday we released a study that looked at the effect of three trade actions/inactions by the Administration on American workers -- in short: employment losses could total as much as 585,800 jobs. One of the three actions concerned the failure to implement NAFTA trucking provisions costing an estimated 25.6k jobs. The Teamsters union responded yesterday:

“The Chamber gets it exactly wrong on several levels,” Hoffa said. “First, it’s NAFTA that cost at least a million U.S. jobs. Second, Mexico imposed tariffs that are manifestly excessive, and that’s a violation of trade rules. It’s outrageous to blame the United States government for Mexico’s disregard for U.S. highway safety standards as well as trade agreements.”

Needless to say, Hoffa's claim of who is "exactly wrong" is exactly wrong.  Let's break it down.

1. "First, it’s NAFTA that cost at least a million U.S. jobs" -- False, false, false, and false.

2. "Second, Mexico imposed tariffs that are manifestly excessive." -- Actually, a significant amount of the harm our study has identified comes from the sheer inefficiency of the current system for moving goods across the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, a shipment traveling between the United States and Mexico requires three trucks and three drivers – a U.S. carrier, a Mexican carrier and a middleman known as a drayage hauler. This mess adds an estimated $739 million to the costs borne by U.S. consumers, even before Mexico’s tariffs kick in.

3. "Mexico’s disregard for U.S. highway safety standards” -- The vehicles and drivers of Mexico and Canada must comply with all U.S. safety regulations. In fact, the U.S. Congress imposed a number of additional requirements on Mexico several years ago – requirements the Department of Transportation recently confirmed Mexico’s trucks and drivers clearly meet.  Just weeks ago, the DOT Inspector General’s audit found that Mexican trucks and truck drivers are as safe as their U.S. counterparts.

Anyway the silver lining I suppose is that the Teamsters are apparently fine with the study's findings on the other two actions/inactions – dragging our feet on trade agreements and the imposition of "Buy American" provisions -- which could cost up to 560,200 jobs. I am sure they will support the Chamber’s efforts to remedy these measures and create good American jobs and reject anti-trade policies which will squander the great potential of the new global economy. Tom Donohue explains: