Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena has called for U.S. support to “modernize” the border between the two countries, to encourage international investment and promote cross-border trade.
Speaking at the Responsible Investment Forum organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington on Thursday, Bárcena said that Mexico has an opportunity to become “the country of relocation and nearshoring,” but “we do not want to do this alone.”
“We really want to control drug trafficking and arms smugglers, but at the same time we want to provide better infrastructure for trade, and therefore we have to modernize the border,” she said.
Bárcena also said that international investment and the support of institutions such as the IDB would be an essential part of this process, as that “is how the security of the border is guaranteed.”
Mexico is now the top trading partner of the United States, with the exchange of goods between the two countries reaching nearly US $400 billion in the first six months of this year. Much of this can be attributed to nearshoring, as companies relocate operations from Asia to Mexico to take advantage of access to the U.S. market.
“We are working on a strategy to make sure that North America can generate, for example, the production of semiconductors and conductors and attract companies that are doing it in Asia to bring them to North America,” Bárcena said.
Concerns over security and migration have been a significant obstacle to the movement of goods between the two countries. In September and October, border crossings between Mexico and Texas were snarled for several weeks, after Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered more stringent inspections of cargo entering the United States, suspending cargo processing entirely at some crossings. Mexico’s National Chamber of Trucking estimated this held up more than US $1.5 billion of exports.
A similar episode occurred in April 2022, which only eased after Nuevo Laredo Governor Samuel García agreed to install new checkpoints on the Mexican side of Nuevo León’s border with Texas.
Months later, Mexico agreed to invest US $1.5 billion in border infrastructure between 2022 and 2024. In September this year, a new state-of-the-art checkpoint was installed at the Puerto Colombia border crossing in Nuevo León, which Governor García boasted would be “the safest and fastest customs office in North America.”
However, this is only one of the 53 border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. At Thursday’s IDB forum, Bárcena stressed that a successful strategy would need to “incorporate the rest of the region.”
With reports from Forbes and El Universal
Is this a joke? First what I see is zero maintenance on roads here in the TJ and Rosarito area unless it’s broken along with water and sewer lines. The it takes months to fix them. Just getting to the border crossing is insane as the infrastructure to get their just does not work and Mexico wants help from the US. LOL
They are to build an elevated road along the border here to maybe help improve the traffic which is projected to take a year and a half or more, yet the goverment has failed to maintain other roads to get to the border that are very dangerous to drive that at one time was a very good road. You would think they would fix this one road Blvd 2000 before they start any project for a alternate road.
How about fixing the sewage going into the ocean between Playas TJ and Imperial beach in San Diego which has been going for years and years. The people here want it fixed but the goverment seems to not care.
You’re only commenting one-sided, and one border. If you have traveled to Mexico, and I mean the interior of México, you would understand what she is talking about. The majority of the roads are maintained due to caseta fees and government safety monitoring. It’s when the imports to the U.S. arrive at the U. S PORTS of entry is one area where the problem lies. Truckers sit for hours waiting to enter through Customs, which you don’t see happening as you enter Mexico. Again, that’s just one area, but based on your comment, I’m not going to waste my time explaining. You wouldn’t understand anyway.
Mexico under its present administration has ignored the drug mafias. it is the de facto policy to leave the control of drugs to the American customs. .Irresponsible!
Now what about all those Americans weapons which are sold for a profit which kill 25,000 Mexicans each year. USA, start doing your job. US Supreme court is responsible and a co- conspirator of the mass killings in each country. When will the US Supreme court get a clue to what it means to govern.