Teamsters President James P. Hoffa blasted a ruling by an arbitration panel that the United States cannot continue to keep Mexican trucks out of the country in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

At a press conference yesterday in Washington, D.C., Hoffa said, "Our nation has surrendered control over access to U.S. highways to an outside panel that includes unelected representatives of foreign governments," Hoffa said. "Yesterday's final determination by the NAFTA dispute resolution panel fully confirms the dangers we face. We must protect our citizens from those whose interests are not necessarily our own."
A coalition of trade and highway safety groups and members of Congress joined Hoffa at the press conference.
The Teamsters say that if the border is opened, as President George W. Bush has said he plans to do, unsafe, overloaded trucks with fatigued drivers at the wheel will stream across the border and put Americans in danger as well as threatening jobs.
"We believe the panel erred in faulting the United States for choosing highway safety over an ill-conceived and unenforceable trade regime," Hoffa continued. "We all agree that unsafe trucks must be blocked at the border. Yet millions of them escape detection every year. We remain adamant that the safety of our citizens must come before diplomatic niceties. We insist that trade sanctions -- however unfair -- are the price we must pay for having signed the North American Free Trade Agreement."