Day 12, January 17, Laredo, Texas

    We had a day trip down to this inland port city on the U.S.-Mexico border, about 140 miles south of San Antonio. The four-lane divided highway between the two cities is in excellent shape, and the traffic flow is similar to that between Calgary and Edmonton. It was a cool day today – around 5 C – which is very cold for this area, even in winter. So with the browned off grass and flat land, it looked and felt like November on the Prairies, except for the large cactuses, the miles of scrub brush and the 95 per cent Hispanic population.

NAFTA has been good for Laredo. The city of 240,000 is the fifth busiest U.S. customs district in terms of dollars of trade. (L.A. is first, followed by New York, Detroit and Houston.) About 46 per cent of U.S.-Mexico trade moves through Laredo, according to the trade magazine World City. Laredo city owns four border-crossing bridges over the Rio Grande, and collects tolls of $3.75 per axle at each bridge. This raises US$48 million for the city. Then there are the spin-off benefits of having lots of traffic. And finally, as a busy border crossing, Laredo has hundreds if not thousands of federal government employees. The Mexican border, after all, is a major security project.

   Because the port is so important to the Laredo economy, the town wants to make sure its port meets the needs of shippers. It has to be as fast and efficient as possible under the new security rules. Part of making it more efficient is to use technology to move trucks through faster. This includes electronic manifests, so the border knows in advance what a truck is carrying and whether it has all the paperwork in line. Tolls are collected and vehicle weights are taken without the truck having to stop. If the truck is overloaded, a $500 fine applies to the automatic toll bill. These features are available at the new World Trade Bridge, which is designed just for trucks. In 2000, the port only needed four or five lanes open to handle the volume. Today, the have all eight lanes open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. And soon they will add seven more lanes — all in the name of moving freight faster. “The city of Laredo remains a leader in international trade by being efficient,” says Jesus Olivares, assistant city manager. That means lots of co-operation with the department heads in Washington (including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security and many others). “We want to make sure our partnership with the U.S. government goes hand in hand with our operations at the border.” This is business for Laredo. Its city leaders visit Washington on a regular basis to make sure policy makers for security and trade don’t forget this fact.

   Businesses are also coming up with their own solutions to improve efficiency at the border. About 12,000 trucks a day cross at Laredo. While it takes under a minute, on average, for a truck to get through the checkpoint, it takes two to four hours waiting in a line to get to the checkpoint in the first place. Rather than have big expensive trucks idling for hours, trucking firms drop the trailers on one side of the border and hire a “drayage” company to take the trailers across. The same trucking firm has other trucks waiting at the other side to pick up the trailers and take them to their destinations. This is how it works in both directions.

   In Laredo, we had lunch at La Posada. We had real fajitas made with skirt steak, enchiladas with corn tortillas, and great refried beans followed by flan — and eggy custard — for dessert. It was the best Mexican food I’ve ever had, which isn’t surprising since this is the closest I’ve been to Mexico. After lunch, we walked over to one of the four bridges and had a peek at the Rio Grande. It’s much smaller than I expected (i.e. not “grande”). It used to be bigger, but much of the flow has been diverted for irrigation. Thus the river is not an imposing barrier to illegal crossings. The multitude of security guards and cameras on the U.S. side make up for it. Border crossing people who spoke to us later in a meeting did not have numbers to share on now many illegals actually get across. Most people cross legally, and many of them are on foot. Laredo is a 250-year-old city and families in the area have a long history of crossing back and forth to do business and to visit. The sister city on the Mexican side, called Nuevo Laredo, has 750,000 people. Pedestrian traffic across the border bridge amounts to five million crossings per year.

   Laredo, Texas didn’t strike me as a rich city, but the people we met were friendly and hospitable. Before we left, the city manager Carlos Villarreal — who joined us for lunch — gave us each a bottle of “1800” tequila. I haven’t had tequila for a long time (for good reason), but this is supposed to be the good stuff. I look forward to trying it.