Believe it or not, I tried three times to respond to the well-reasoned comment made by Don to my previous post using this site’s comment function (You can try it below). And each time my words spontaneously disappeared. Maybe it was operator error (highly likely with this operator) or maybe the computer just did not like what I was saying, but here’s hoping Number 4 is a charm—and to be doubly sure, I am posting my reply to Don as this blog entry, which uses a whole different mechanism.

Anyway, what I have been trying to say is that I agree pretty much with everything Don said, which, if I am summarizing correctly, amounts to sheer wonderment at the fuss being made about trucks from Mexico daring to cross “our” border.

Turning to the Teamsters, let me just say right up front I happen to believe trade unions have just as much right to exist and to advance their agendas vigorously as do corporate entities. That being said, I don’t speak for this union or any union or corporate entity for that matter so I can only imagine why the IBT is beating the anti-Mexico drum to a pulp. My guess is garnering publicity has something to do with it.

I agree that the Sierra Club, an organization I happen to have respect for, is sure barking up the wrong tree this time. And I will even go out on a limb and suggest that if Mexican carriers are to be successful operating here over the long haul, they’ll want to run equipment—and employ drivers— that will enable them to truly be competitive with U.S. carriers on service and not price alone.

Turning to CRASH and their ilk, I’ve got to admit I’ve been impressed by how strongly and forthrightly FMCSA Administrator John Hill (pictured below) has vouched for the safeness of the pilot Mexican carrier program—even going so for as to practically endorse it personally: “Look I’ve been in law enforcement for 29 years – it’s all I’ve ever done – and I am personally committed to highway safety,” said Hill. “I would not be part of any program that wasn’t committed to highway safety.”

As for the overall economic impact of letting Mexican fleets truck here and our fleets truck there (and the same applies in my book to every trucker and conducteur de camion in Canada!), I say again let the chips fall—or fly–where they may. That is what free trade is all about.

And remember, it cuts both ways– or three ways in this case. You can be sure there are industries in Mexico and Canada that are not thrilled with having “their” borders fully opened to American competitors. What also comes to my mind is a quote made famous by John F. Kennedy: “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

We might also try asking ourselves if we are of the land of the free and the home of the brave, why pray tell are so many of us so afraid of a little competition?

The problem with free trade is it’s free. That’s the part opponents of the Mexican truck demo program that got under way last week seem incapable of grasping.

Okay, well, just maybe the U.S. should never have signed the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the seminal treaty that melded– on paper, anyway– the U.S., Canada and Mexico into the world’s largest free-trade zone.

On the other hand, two points are so self-evident that even a 5th grader should grasp them:

1) The Treaty has been finalized and we (the U.S.) are bound to hold up our end of the deal and all its facets.

2) The Treaty was midwifed well before most of us realized China was due to emerge as an economic mega-giant and, frankly, all North Americans should be glad we at least have NAFTA on our side going forward into a very uncertain future.

In its Editorial today, The New York Times rightly took a pro-business stance and slammed both the Teamsters and the Sierra Club (so don’t give me any crap about the Gray Lady being a “left-wing rag”) for trying to block Mexican trucks from taking their legal place on U.S. roads.

“Guaranteeing highway safety does not require undermining the nation’s free trade agreements or its relationship with Mexico,” argued The Times. “It is time for Congress to let Mexican trucks through.”

Yes, let them roll here and let the chips fall where they may.

Isn’t that exactly what free enterprise is all about?

Back in the year of our nation’s Bicentennial, senior slump in the waning days of high school was relieved a bit by a substitute history teacher who apparently took great joy in teaching us Catholic school boys and girls a few select “swear words” in Chinese. To this day, I have no idea if his claims of Cantonese scholarship were true or, if so, what he taught us meant what he said it did or actually translated to something like “You are a soggy egg roll!”

Thirty-one years later, China– the People’s Republic of, that is– is still a Communist dictatorship but it has emerged as an economic force to be more than reckoned with. Certainly, we can all hope that as the more “green” rolls in the less “red” it will become. But given how the Chinese government crushed the Tiananmen Square protests back in ‘89, the day China becomes a democracy may be yet another century off.

In the meantime, one thing is damn sure: More Chinese goods– and of higher and higher value and complexity– will make their way to our shores. News reports of recalled toys have informed us that something like 90% of the toys now sold here are made in China. And a visit to any chain store or souvenir shop for that matter will clearly show that most stuff of any sort that costs less than 10 bucks is made there too.

But what many Americans don’t realize is China is also making bigger stuff for export too. Major appliances are here already– and, yes, cars are next. Consider this piece from Forbes.com about how the Chinese OEM Chery recently rolled its millionth– yes, millionth– vehicle off the assembly line.

As noted by the Forbes reporter, thanks to deals with Italy’s Fiat and Iran’s Khodro, the Chinese firm has vowed to double the number of its offshore plants in three years. And under the terms of an earlier deal, Forbes reports, Chery-made Chryslers will soon reach the U.S. and be priced “at around half of the current price of Chrysler’s cheapest model.”

It may start with bread-and-butter cars like a Chery hatchback but you can be sure Chinese-made sedans and SUVs will follow– not to mention pickups and on up the GVW scale. There could well be a Chery in your future. No matter how foreign that may sound right now.