Border officials talk up trade opportunities in New Mexico

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (Border Report) – U.S. companies will continue to relocate their manufacturing hubs from Asia to North America in the coming years, and local leaders don’t want their border communities to be left out.

“We are three cities – El Paso, Las Cruces and Juarez – but we are one community,” Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar said. “We want to keep this spirit of cooperation and continue to explore opportunities for our community so that we all benefit.”

Perez Cuellar, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico, and city and business leaders from Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, met here Wednesday to discuss some of those opportunities and possible challenges as well.

Juarez and Sunland Park have signed off on a new port of entry proposal and will be waiting for new presidential administrations in Mexico and the U.S. to come down with a verdict.

“It’s out of our hands now,” Perez Cuellar said. “However, because of the size of our community on both sides of the border, any new border crossing is a good thing.”

The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro border crossing potentially would provide relief to hours-long waits by travelers and commuters to get from the El Paso region to Juarez and vice versa. The proposed expansion of the Santa Teresa border crossing a few miles west would do the same for commercial trucks often crawling at a snail’s pace at the flagship Ysleta commercial port of entry in El Paso.

“It’s incredibly important that we keep good relations with the United States’ largest trading partner (Mexico). And right here in Sunland Park, in Santa Teresa, this represents economic opportunity, jobs, growth for the U.S., lower costs for all Americans. So, these meetings are incredibly important,” Vasquez said.

The binational partners then met behind closed doors at Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino to negotiate actual commitments.

“As the U.S. invests on infrastructure on our side of the border, we want to get some commitments from the municipal government of Juarez and the state of Chihuahua, we will have that infrastructure match on our side of the border,” Vasquez said.

Sunland Park only has 16,000 inhabitants but abuts some El Paso main thoroughfares like Sunland Park Drive, Doniphan Drive, Paisano Drive and is minutes away from Interstate 10 and the Border Highway. Santa Teresa has four industrial parks and is across the border from a huge electronics manufacturer in San Jeronimo, Mexico.

Border officials expect the trade discussions to be ongoing.

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