Sonoyta Crossing Today

I'll try to stick in a thought or two here without any facts to back them up. Another recent thread got off on the topic of Mexican trucks in the US. I did some research about NAFTA and the trucks and how all of that is working out. There are still some problems with all the trade agreements. One of the things I read said Mexico has restrictions on 17 agricultural products coming from the US. Whether that means they tax them or just don't allow them I do not know. I posted in the other thread the idea that there has been a push in recent years to allow the Mexican trucks into the US because the US restrictions are costing the US billions of dollars in trade with Mexico. So maybe beef is one of the restricted items due to these trade agreement problems? Maybe it has nothing to do with the quality of the products at all - but it could have to do with the problems with our trade agreements and the fact that not everything is going according to plan. Stopping a couple of steaks at the border probably means nothing compared to stopping truckloads of beef - or whatever other products are on the list - maybe it is just one of these things they do to let people know there are still restrictions and NAFTA is not fully in place??? Just total speculation on my part.

Also - a year or two ago there was a viral video which made the news in the US for quite awhile showing a fork lift shoving a half dead cow around to get it to the killing floor. Between seeing that and what I saw many times as a trucker both picking up and dropping off loads of beef in the US I would have to say that I am not at all impressed by sanitary practices in the beef industry in the US. I have no idea about sanitary conditions in beef plants in Mexico but I would not be bragging that the US conditions are all that great.