Trucking regulation and safety in Mexico

     The wisdom of acting slowly to open our borders to Mexican trucking firms was confirmed last night as news of a spectacular explosion made its way to the United States.  The cause:  a collision on a northern Mexican highway involving a truck transporting explosives.  Thirty-seven people were killed and dozens were injured.

        The Bush Administration has been very reluctant to regulate safety or industry in the United States, and very eager to open our borders to international commerce.  Sadly, we cannot trust this administration to put into place the necessary safeguards to assure that our highways will remain safe in the process.  Most of us don't know whether the Mexican trucking industry is safe--or for that matter whether it is vulnerable to terrorism.  If our borders are to be opened to international trucking, we have the right to know that it will be under the strict control of a government that is genuinely willing to regulate it.  The Bush Administration has proven itself not only unwilling to engage in legitimate regulation on behalf of consumers, but frankly willing to sneer at regulation---by placing a fox in every available henhouse (refer to previous weblog entries addressing appointments in the regulation of consumer products, mine safety, and trucking safety, to name just a few).  Congress is doing the right thing by attempting to put the brakes on international trucking deregulation.