Mónica Ortiz Uribe
Commercial trucks wait at the international bridge in El Paso, Texas.
Trade between the United States and Mexico is a hot topic on the border this week.
On Wednesday, the Council of the Americas hosted a conference on border competitiveness together with the University of Texas at El Paso and U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso Democrat.
On Friday, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez will make an announcement with neighboring Chihuahua Governor Cesar Duarte about a new cross-border economic development initiative.
There was also much talk among trade advocates this week about a new partnershipannounced this month between local communities and U.S. Customs and Border Protection(CBP). A total of five partnerships, part of a pilot program, are set to begin in the coming months. The partnership involves local governments, non-profit organizations and airports that will reimburse CBP to staff additional officers or pay for overtime. The goal is to speed up costly delays at the ports of entry.
A growing majority of politicians and business leaders in this region want to the border to be viewed less as a threat, and more as an area of economic opportunity.
"We have this embarrassment of riches before us and we are failing to capitalize on it," O'Rourke said Wednesday.
In the last decade trade between the U.S. and Mexico quintupled to half a trillion dollars a year. Nearly 80 percent of that trade flows across the southwest border. Texas and California are leading the nation in exports to Mexico. Meanwhile, Arizona and New Mexico are increasingly focused on strengthening their relationship with their southern neighbor.