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Mexico Business Center Update

By James Clark, Mexico Business Center Director General

The Mexico Business Center’s “United States-Mexico Border Efficiency Conference,” held in February at the University of San Diego, identified short-term operations and low-cost capital improvements that should reduce wait times at California/Mexico Ports of Entry without compromising national security.  Currently, border congestion and wait times ranging anywhere from one and a half to three hours have become common at the San Ysidro and  Otay Mesa ports of entry as well as at Tecate and Imperial County.   Border wait times severely impact business. A recent Caltrans study on the Economic Impacts of Cross-Border Wait Times in the California-Baja California Border Region, cited the following economic losses:

Annual Output  Lost (Personal Travel and Freight Movements): 

• California = $4.56 billion;
• San Diego County = $3.32 billion;
• Imperial County = $0.35 billion;
• United States = $5.35 billion;
• Baja California = $2.22 billion;
• Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito, Ensenada = $1.77 billion;
• Mexicali = $0.45 billion;
• Mexico = $3.28 billion.

Combined Annual Jobs Lost (Personal Travel and Freight Movements):

• California = 49,830;
• San Diego County = 41,678;
• Imperial County = 3,935;
• United States = 55,675;
• Baja California = 12,582;
• Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito, Ensenada = 9,982;
• Mexicali = 2,690;
• Mexico = 18,258.

The Border Efficiency Conference brought together federal, state and municipal authorities from both sides of the border, plus the private sector and other stakeholders to make specific recommendations on reducing the wait times at border crossings between Baja California and California, both short term and long term. The results of the conference were presented to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez of the United States as well as Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy Eduardo Sojo and Secretary of Governance Juan Camilo Mouriño Terrazo in Los Cabos at the end of February.   The recommendations will also be presented at the New Orleans Summit meeting in April of Presidents George W. Bush and Felipe Calderon, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Mexico Business Center will work on behalf of the Chamber with elected officials, stakeholders and appropriate agencies on both sides of the border to help assure implementation of the recommendations.