Posted on 11/27/2005 4:42:00 PM PST by cope85
New Kansas City customs port may expedite trade with Mexico Region hopes to capitalize on growing cross-border trade By Garance Burke, Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Shipping American cars and electronics to Mexico may become much cheaper and faster early next year when the first Mexican customs facility in the United States is expected to open in the heart of the Midwest. It may be nearly 1,000 miles to the border from Kansas City, but this industrial hub will soon start building an inland port that would whisk thousands of trucks through export inspections and shoot them back out onto the North American Free Trade Agreement corridor, where they can roll through the border without further delays.
The $3 million facility, which would be the first foreign customs office inside the United States, will likely be approved by the U.S. and Mexican governments by year's end and is scheduled to open next May, said Chris Gutierrez, president of Kansas City SmartPort Inc., a nonprofit organization promoting the project.
Planners say manufacturing industries in the upper Midwest and Canada would be the first to benefit from the new customs operation, which they believe could expand to handle cargo from across the country.
Mexican government officials confirmed the two countries had agreed on the overall proposal, though both nations said finer points of the agreement were still being negotiated by customs officials — including security concerns and the legal standing of Mexican customs officials working in the United States.
After a visit to Kansas City in May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said the pilot proposal was "bold and imaginative" and could transform Kansas City into a "major new trade link" that would fit well with new border security initiatives to pre-approve cargo.
"We've always had the railroad and the river and the airlines and the roads, but this will open up tremendous new business opportunities for Kansas City," said Kansas City councilwoman Bonnie Sue Cooper, who said she proposed the idea to the Mexican Finance Minister Francisco Gil Diaz last year.
In the 1940s, Kansas City — at the intersection of two major interstate highways along the Missouri River — was one of the country's largest rail distribution centers.
Now plans are to fill a gravel lot that once held cattle with a big-box building that will process long lines of big rigs packed with goods for export to Mexico.
Providing the containers stay electronically sealed once they're inspected, the trucks will be free to cross the border and avoid further inspections, resulting in efficiencies and cost savings.
"Kansas City is the geographical
heart of the United States and of the entire NAFTA region," said Everardo Suarez, Mexican consul general in Kansas City. Once the agreement is completed, Kansas City would essentially function like a Mexican port.
The transition to the global economy comes just in time: since the city's stockyards and airline industry declined, it has been struggling to rebuild itself as a leader in global logistics.
"I think this project would go a long way to transform trucking," said Chaz Jones, a research analyst with Morgan Keegan, a Memphis investment bank. "Truckers typically get paid per mile. The more time cargo spends moving on the road, the more revenue it generates for a carrier."
In recent months, delays at the hurricane-damaged port of New Orleans and bottlenecks at Long Beach and Los Angeles have caused companies to look for alternative trade routes. Industry analysts said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is one of several companies moving freight through Mexico as an alternative to using West Coast ports; Wal-Mart spokespeople would not confirm the move.
Because so much trade between NAFTA partners is carried by truck, Midwestern cities with good transportation infrastructure stand to capture some of that trade flow.
In August 2005, trucks carried 64 percent of imports from Canada and Mexico and 80 percent of U.S. exports to those countries, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
San Antonio has also invested significant efforts to develop a competing inland port. But Kansas City officials hope the customs facility will give the city a leg up, especially once the project's second phase, which will allow rail cars to clear Mexican customs as well, is completed.
Kansas City Southern owns two Mexican train lines which means they can send freight from the Midwest directly to the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, where car manufacturer Mazda Motor Corp. has begun shipping vehicles from Japan to Kansas City.
"There might not be enough volume to open a rail facility today, but we certainly expect that will increase in the next few years," said Warren Erdman, a vice president at Kansas City Southern. "We have great interest in the proposal."
Namaste!
as I said....quite entertaining. : )
I left my headlights on the car this afternoon while at lunch. When I came out the car was dead. I couldn't find the latch for the hood on our car so the kind gentleman who offered to help could jump start it. Calls to my husband resulted in hysterical laughter. I was not amused.
Oh dear!
Thanks for the links!
Does anyone still think that Bush REALLY plans to do ANYTHING about illegal immigration? I would REALLY like to say what I'm thinking about the traitors in the White House and Congress, but if I did, I'd get banned in a heartbeat.
Suffice to say, short of an armed revolution, America is doomed to become a third world country. The ONLY winners are the traitors!! We've been sold out for the big corporations!!!
I see a red glow to my southwest. Is that you blowing your top? LOL IF you will look to your northeast, you will see another red glow, and that would be me! :o) Can you believe this? What a bunch of traitors. From the House through the Senate and straight to the White House. We have been sold out in the name of globalism.
http://www.usmcoc.org/eco2.html
ROTFL!!! and no, I cannot believe it!!! what the ...
"But I suspect this 'port' will also double as a port for Mexican trucks that will by pass border inspections coming up from Mexico..."
Yep. Sounds like one of Bush's "Smart Borders" plans.
That's okay. I can appreciate your anger. I likewise live in the Kansas City area, and it pi$$ me off too.
Well, from this Californian, I hope and pray you and your like minded friends can stop this dead in it's track.
Here is the more of the plan at http://www.nascocorridor.com/. North American Union here we come. Is it good, is it bad, is it inevitable? I don't know.
If you board a US bound airliner from Shannon, Ireland, you pass through US customs on Irish soil (well, back in the mid 1990's) It struck me as odd, but didn't bother me other than the fact we were paying US customs personnel to live in Ireland at taxpayers expense. Not sure this is something to get upset about if we do indeed have a vibrant export business with Mexico.
In Mexico "Hecho en EEUU" sells.
The Mexican middle class like American brands, especially home appliances and tools, which have a reputation for high quality and long life there.
I'm all for promoting the export of anything but jobs and dollars to Mexico.
"Anyone have any other ideas?"
If they are using city land for this then they are defacing public property, so file a crime report for the vandalism. But if your city is anything like ours good luck, we have illegal immigrant gang vandalism all over public property, street sights and walls with graffiti and we cannot file a crime report unless it happens on our own personal property. So if that don’t work file an environmental, safety or zoning complaint. And if those dont work file a discrimination complaint, since one can be sure they will not be hiring any English literature majors to fill these jobs, but in short, I really have no answers, we are being screwd.
Since Wal Mart is now undercutting our American ports, they may as well cut out Mexico too, and just fly over their Walmarts and do cargo drops with parachutes.
They're here, we might as well start dealing with them. </barf
My guess is that if the city owns the land and leases it to Mexico for diplomatic reasons you won't have a leg to stand on. Many consular offices are leased and retain sovereign rights as long as the lease is maintained.
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