Posted on 05/30/2007 6:22:13 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A proposed North American “super corridor” would relieve overburdened highways and promote economic growth in three countries, supporters say.
But others wonder whether the proposal might bring in cheap exports and put unsafe Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.
The issue takes center stage at a three-day conference that begins today in Fort Worth, Texas. More than 350 transportation, logistics and economic development specialists from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting.
The conference is sponsored by Dallas-based North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition.
The nonprofit coalition, whose members include public- and private-sector organizations, wants to develop an integrated transportation system linking the three countries.
The corridor includes interstates 29, 94 and 35, giving North Dakota and Minnesota a stake in the outcome. The project has drawn heavy criticism, including claims that it threatens U.S. control of its own borders.
Such claims are “extremely inaccurate, false and unhelpful to the country’s actual needs,” said Francisco Conde, the coalition’s director of special projects and communications.
The real issue is that the U.S. Interstate Highway System, completed in 1970, is increasingly overwhelmed by the country’s growing population and economy, he said.
The transportation system needs to be expanded for growth to continue, he said.
North Dakota and western Minnesota have less immediate need for the super corridor than the southern Great Plains does, said Jerry Nagel, president of Fargo-based Northern Great Plains, which seeks to maximize the area’s potential through regional collaboration.
The existing highway system in this area is still adequate – which isn’t the case in the southern Great Plains, where some highways are stressed by heavy traffic, he said.
Texas lawmakers for months have wrangled over construction of what is known as the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Plans call for a transportation network across Texas, including a 10-lane highway with six lanes for automobiles and four lanes for trucks. Freight and commuter railways and a utilities corridor are also part of the proposal, which would stretch the system from Laredo, Texas, to Canada.
The idea has sparked controversy in Texas, where rural interest groups are opposed to paving thousands of acres of farmland for transportation.
There aren’t any plans for super corridor-related construction in North Dakota, said Bob Fode, director of transportation projects for the state Department of Transportation.
David Martin, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Fargo Moorhead, said his group supports the super corridor project. The region’s continued growth requires expanded transportation opportunities, he said.
North Dakota Commerce Commissioner Shane Goettle said a transportation corridor would help the state. Both North Dakota and Minnesota are exporting more to Mexico and Canada, according to U.S. government figures.
From 2001 to 2006, North Dakota increased its exports to Mexico from $38 million to $55 million and its exports to Canada from $394 million to $727 million. In the same period, Minnesota exports to Mexico rose from $435 million to $595 million, with exports to Canada rising from $2.6 billion to $4.1 billion.
The proposed super corridor worries the American trucking industry.
“We are concerned about the safety standards of Mexican trucks,” said Thomas Balzer, managing director of the North Dakota Motor Carriers Association.
There’s also concern that Mexican truckers will improperly carry goods between U.S. cities while they’re in this country with international shipments, he said.
Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said it likely will be 20 years before the project has any impact on Minnesota.
He said it’s too early to know how such a corridor would affect the Red River Valley, but there are some concerns over how an influx of Canadian and Mexican imports could affect North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota’s economies.
“There’s a lot of concern out there with some people about Canadian cattle, and hogs and wheat. You’ve got a different situation on the Mexico border,” Peterson said.
“It depends on where it goes and how it’s developed.”
Thanks for the ping!
You’re welcome. :-)
The link takes you to a pdf (just a warning, sometimes pdf links freeze my computer).
http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/NorthAmerica_TF_final.pdf
The CFR’s North American Community, in my opinion, sounds like the loss of national sovereignty to me. This is the sort of thing that leads to us all being “citizens of the world.” These steps are incremental. This super corridor is one step, the Senate’s immigration deal is another step.
I suspect, based on your other posts, that you’ll offer me Saran Wrap for my tinfoil hat and accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist, but when I read things like the following, it makes me very nervous. Read through this report, and you will find multiple examples of this kind of “no borders” language:
“Lay the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America. The three governments should commit themselves to the long-term goal of dramatically diminishing the need for the current intensity of the governments’ physical control of cross-border traffic, travel, and trade within North America. A long-term goal for a North American border action plan should be joint screening of travelers from third countries at their first point of entry into North America and the elimination of most controls over the temporary movement of these travelers within North America.”
It smells like an effort to erase our northern and southern borders, and I believe it is a terrible and tragic mistake.
I’m all for pro-growth measures, and I have no problem with expanding opportunities for trade with other nations. But those opportunities should not also mean a loss of our borders.
Exactly, see the CFR report linked to in post #24 of this thread.
We are all citizens of North America, now. The United States is merely a geographic and historic reference point.
As I recall, the Interstate Highway System was considered complete in 1996.
Think very many people would use it?
CFR? I thought we were talking about a road?
This super corridor is one step,
So the road really doesn't take our sovereignty?
I’m all for pro-growth measures, and I have no problem with expanding opportunities for trade with other nations. But those opportunities should not also mean a loss of our borders.
I agree, more trade, fewer illegals.
Sounds good enough for me. I knew the 1970 date was garbage. They ought to fire any reporter who isn't smart enough to Google.
I remember the last stretch of I-75 in Georgia was paved while Carter was president. They set up a big ceremony with him. Unfortunately, the weather conditions weren't right for the paving, and a few weeks after the staged news event they were tearing the paving out so they could re-do that stretch.
We're taling about a road that offers travel from the southern tip of Mexico, through the United States and into Canada. The road is a big part of the CFR's plan for a North American Community.
So the road really doesn't take our sovereignty?
It's a piece of the puzzle, IMO.
I agree, more trade, fewer illegals.
When we erase the border, there will be no illegals, so I guess you'll get what you want.
Currently there are no roads that go from Mexico into the US? No roads that go from Canada into the US?
When we erase the border, there will be no illegals, so I guess you'll get what you want.
Sorry to disappoint you, I don't want illegals or an erased border.
Railways are part of the super corridor plans, too.
Where I live we are part of CANAMEX, a high priority corridor kind of a variation of Texas Corridor.
Union Pacific has been here trying to get options on land to build rail from Mexico. Supposed, they are now going to look in California.....
Down in Baja, Mexico.... a new port to rival Long Beach is to be built where millions and millions of containers of Chinese goods are to be loaded on the trains and trucks to ship north to the US and Canada.
I bet every state has corridors planned to be part of “this global” madness.
We are to have power come up from Mexico, right across the border. Natural gas is to come in from off Baja. New highway roads...not openly referred to as CANAMEX. One speaker did say we are “the western leg of CANAMEX.”
So much for all the transparency,the new government buzz word!
Yeah, we're just like Europe. LOL!
Stop the electricity! Stop the gas! Do it for the children.
The first steps are in the works. Laugh all you want. You are being sold out by Congress and your President. It will be real funny. /sarcasm
If you say so.
Patronize all you want. Fools do that so well.
Whine all you want. Fools do that so well.
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