Senate votes to block Mexican trucks test

It seems a good idea to delay this part of NAFTA

It seems a good idea to delay this part of NAFTA until Mexican trucks meet American safety standards. It is really sort of a one-way street because Mexican traffic laws might not allow American truckers to operate freely in Mexico. It seems likely that we are being asked to make a concession to Mexico once again.

On July 17, 2006, National Review magazine Deputy Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts wrote an article entitled Mexico, Heal Thyself. This was condensed and printed in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper, but a Reagan staffer was quoted as saying this about Mexico:


Norman Bailey, a former special assistant to Ronald Reagan for international economic affairs, explains that "Mexico has a safety valve which most other countries don't have. Most countries either collapse or they do the necessary thing.

"Mexico has never been in the position of being forced to do the necessary thing."

Carlos Slim, a friend of former Mexican President Salinas, was sold the Mexican telephone company, Telmex, and is now considered the richest man in the world, worth at least $59 billion, I think.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/03/new...im.fortune/index.htm?section=money_topstories

The solution to Mexico's woes is cited by Editor Steorts as ending state monopolies, desocializing agriculture, simplifing tax and labor laws and improving the school system.

An advisor of President Fox says that the problem is political, according to the article:

Arias-King thinks the problem lies in Mexico's political culture, which has traditionally been dominated by the oligarchic elite. "We don't have economic problems; our problems are really political in nature," he says.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/guests/s_461035.html