MEXICO CITY — Gov. Doug Ducey unveiled last Friday a U.S.-Mexico customs clearance service.
The project is called SkyBridge, and it’s based at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The main goal is to facilitate trade between both countries.
With SkyBridge, customs officials from Mexico and the U.S. will do simultaneous inspections to shipments at the Mesa airport.
“It’s going to dramatically reduce the amount of time that it takes to bring goods into the country and to ship goods outside of the country,” said Glenn Hamer, CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Hamer says SkyBridge will generate 17,000 direct and indirect jobs, while increasing cargo flights by 2,000 a year.
“In the age of e-commerce, this is a really, really big deal,” Hamer said. He anticipates the quarter-billion-dollar commercial development will help modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, as it will facilitate shipping in the digital era.
And as 40 percent of Arizona exports already go to Mexico, more business will be able to reach the south of the border, Hamer said.
