NAFTA and the Teamsters

Here is an article about the Teamsters trying to stop the Bush Administration from allowing Mexican trucks full access to the United States. It seem patently unfair to allow Mexican trucking companies into the US and not forcing them to follow US law.


It is time for our leaders to stop selling out the US through International agreements. There are two ways to do free trade, the first is the race to the bottom where everyone relaxes regulations and safety to become competitive at the expense of workers. Or there is an untried model where we uniformly raise standards as a condition of trade. The first, I would argue does not work very well when it comes to protecting the environment, consumers or workers, so maybe we should take a look at the second?


Just to be clear, I don't have a problem with the Mexican truck drivers. I just would like the regulations applied evenly. The same goes for any immigrant labor... Applying things like minimum wage laws to everyone protects both immigrant laborers from exploitation and provides a level playing field to American workers to compete.