Newspaper reports during the month of August have highlighted several border transportation issues from truckers striking at Texas bridge crossings to a Las Cruces businessman's new transloading operation at the Santa Teresa, NM port.
Mexican truck drivers blockaded the northbound and southbound lanes of the Lincoln-Juarez bridge leading into downtown Laredo on August 14 in protest over delays in U.S. Customs inspections . The protest, which halted all commercial traffic, was one of several demonstrations by Mexican truckers along the Texas border over the past several months. In June, for example, truckers blockaded commercial lanes into Brownsville and McAllen for 24 hours in protest of federal and state safety inspections.
At issue in Laredo, one of the busiest ports along the U.S.-Mexico border, is the lengthy delay due to Customs cargo and drug enforcement inspections. According to a report in the El Paso Times, the striking truckers position was that Customs was not processing the trucks fast enough and should open more lanes to speed trade across the border.
Customs has admitted delays are lengthy but has pointed out, in this case, that truckers can use an alternative route 18 miles outside of the city. In addition, they indicated, in an El Paso Timesarticle, that they are hampered by limited resources. The alternative crossing, called the Columbia Bridge, processes just 800 trucks a day and the facilities are newer and more spacious. The Lincoln-Juarez bridge processes approximately 3,500 trucks per day, many more than it was originally designed to handle. The striking truckers have responded that the Columbia bridge is inconvenient.
Meanwhile an end to the on-going controversy about delays in implementing the commercial trucking portion of the North American Free Trade Agreement is in sight. Federal officials have been negotiating with Mexico regarding the postponement by the United States of the NAFTA provision which would allow Mexican and U.S. truckers to travel freely throughout either country. Rodney Slater, head of the Federal Highway Administration stated in testimony before a congressional subcommittee in August that closure on the issue is very near. The provision was supposed to have been implemented in December but was delayed after concerns were raised about the safety of Mexican trucks. Mexican freight carriers are currently allowed to travel in the United States only within a 20 mile border radius.
The main sticking point between the two countries, according to Slater, is that U.S. officials want Mexico to step up safety inspections on Mexican trucks before the carriers cross the border into the United States. Of the Mexican trucks inspected by U.S. safety officials at the border, 51 percent have been taken out of service for safety violations, compared to 34 percent of Texas-based trucks. However, a Texas Department of Public Safety official stated in an August 9 article in the El Paso Times that this difference in not "outrageous".
Indeed some have suggested that the delay is tainted by a hidden political agenda driven by labor unions and U.S. trucking interests. The U.S. Teamsters Union and trucking firms have been vocal in raising concerns about protecting public safety in the U.S. Mexican firms have countered that they want to improve their rigs but cannot afford to. They have urged the two countries to find a temporary solution as well as intermediary steps towards implementing the Agreement that take into account the Mexican economy.
A transloading operation on land adjacent to the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico is enabling Mexican trucks to cross their shipments into the U.S., unload and return to Mexico without having to meet stringent U.S. trucking regulations that are required under NAFTA, according to a report in the Las Cruces Sun News.
The site, owned by a Las Cruces-based group of investors called POST, has been leased to several transloading operations whose Mexican trucks are allowed to roll through a gate in the perimeter fence surrounding the U.S. Customs facility. The Mexican shipments are then unloaded onto U.S trucks and the Mexican trucks return to Mexico without driving on U.S. highways. About 200 trucks are transloading per month on the site, up from approximately 50 trucks per month when the operation opened in February.
Sources: Diario de Juarez, El Paso Times, Las Cruces Sun-News