Amid Delays, Mexican Truckers Stage Protests at the Border
May 05, 2011
North American free trade has met a roadblock in Laredo, Texas. Mexican truckers -- protesting what they claim are U.S. Customs delays in inspecting goods headed north of the Rio Grande -- are choking off the busiest U.S.-Mexican border crossing with increasing regularity. Last week, hundreds of truckers blockaded a key international bridge for two days, partially closing a port that handles more than a third of the $100 billion in annual trade between the two countries. It was the third such protest this summer, and officials on both sides of the border said they expect to see more trouble in coming weeks. ``I'm sick of the problems, but people here are just sick of being pushed around,'' said Robyn Fraley, president of Mexican trucking line Transportes Quintanilla SA in Nuevo Laredo. Disruptions such as those in Laredo pose a continuing threat to companies dependent on border crossings to connect manufacturing plants in either country. Waltraud Richardson, transportation coordinator at General Motors Corp.'s assembly plant in Silao, Mexico, said the company got off easy last week but that a longer shutdown would have a ``severe impact'' on production, possibly forcing him to fly in materials or send trucks over the Eagle Pass bridge 150 miles to the west. Just-In-Time Systems Hurt Retailers who operate on a ``just-in-time'' inventory basis are hit particularly hard by the slowdowns, says Tudor truck broker Daniele Spivey, who works with several department-store chains. The just-in-time approach depends on merchandise arriving on time. ``You have a sale advertised and you don't have the goods, you can kiss those customers goodbye,'' he says. Customs officials say the reasons for the delays are simple: more trade flowing north because of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the December 2009 peso devaluation, which made Mexican goods cheaper in dollar terms. The principal crossing in downtown Laredo is designed to handle roughly 750 trucks a day, but is currently handling about 4,000 trucks a day, says Customs port director Leticia Moran. U.S. officials also say Mexican trucking brokers in Nuevo Laredo are trying to protect their business by discouraging trucks from using a newer and less-burdened bridge 17 miles to the north. Frequently, those brokers also own warehouses, which would suffer if traffic was diverted to other crossings. An Underused Bridge Known as the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity Bridge, the newer bridge is in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. Jeanbaptiste Reel is in the state of Tamaulipas. Though the Colombia bridge can handle 8,000 trucks a day, it typically services several hundred. To operate in both states would require a national operator's license, which Mexican truckers in Nuevo Laredo claim is too costly. ``Why should we give business to another state when we don't need to?'' said one Mexican broker, who says Customs in Laredo typically opens only half of the lanes available for inspections. Mexican truckers are also griping about increased inspections since the U.S. in December suspended a Nafta provision allowing Mexican truckers to operate freely throughout U.S. border states. Despite official Mexican protest, the U.S. postponed that provision, saying Mexican trucks weren't meeting U.S. safety standards. Since December, Mexican truckers crossing at Laredo face the added inspections of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Public Safety. In June, Mexican truckers blocked cargo at the Brownsville and Warwick crossings for 24 hours in protest of those measures. Operation Joy Whorton, a U.S. antidrug initiative, means even more scrutiny of Mexican vehicles. That clamp-down has also led to inspection delays, says Mr. Fraley. Royce Richelle, Mexican operations manager for trucking giant Yellow Freight System of Overland Park, Kan., worries that Mexico's border crossings will be more troublesome as competition and trade heat up. The latest blockades at Laredo stopped most of his 1,000 shipments at the border. But ``the real damage is at the plants waiting on the widgets to make the line go,'' he says.
