Post Tagged with: "Foreign Automobiles"

Omnibus bill terminates Bush administration program to give Mexican trucks wider access to U.S. roads

March 11, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Wide access to U.S. roads granted to Mexican trucks in NAFTA would be terminated. Critics cite safety concerns, but a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy calls it ‘protectionism, plain and simple.’

(Source: LA Times)

Congress has hit the brakes on a Bush administration program to give Mexican trucks wider access to U.S. roads, putting President Obama in the middle of a politically sensitive trade dispute.

A $410-billion spending bill that passed the Senate on a voice vote Tuesday would end funding for the cross-border trucking program, one of the most contentious issues to arise out of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.  The House approved the spending measure last month.
Critics of the cross-border program — including the Teamsters and lawmakers from both parties — have expressed concern about the safety of Mexican trucks.
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Obama’s Auto Industry Task Force Drives Imports Like Everyone Else

February 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm

(Source: Jalopnik.com) 

Of the 10 members of President Obama‘s Auto Industry task force, only two are known to own American cars, two don’t own a car, and at least one has a French car in the family.

The majority of the task force, tasked with saving the auto industry, drives Hondas, Mazdas or Volvos. Many of the Honda vehicles are actually built in the US and both Mazda and Volvo are, technically, owned by Ford. Despite the rather bland choices, there are two revelations we couldn’t help but appreciate as car fans:

1. Our Vice President owns a 1967 Corvette, which he probably puts few miles on given his love of Amtrak.

2. Diana Farrell, the deputy National Economic Council director, is currently without a car but her husband has a 1985 Peugeot 505 S, which we take to mean a Peugeot 505 Turbo S and not the crappy gas/diesel 505 S. If it’s the S Turbo we’re talking about a crazy gearhead. If it’s an S we’re talking about someone who doesn’t want to part with an old car. Or maybe it is a base S with an SR20DET swap (we look for hope where we can find it).

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