The New Mexico delegation announced today the Santa Teresa Port of Entry will receive $10 million for infrastructure improvements from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, or stimulus funds).
The major improvements will be expanding passenger vehicle lanes to five lanes, up from the current level of two, and expanding the commercial inspection lanes from 2 to 3 lanes. Other improvements will be built as well. This should help ease the traffic congestion going through Santa Teresa in recent months.
Crossings through Santa Teresa have gone up from less than 3000 per month in 2005 to an average of over 6000 per month the first five months of this year. And the value of total trade processed through the Santa Teresa Port of Entry has increased from less than $1.5 billion in 2008 to $4.7 billion in 2009 and, at the current rate of over $800 million per month, to about $10 billion this year, according to figures provided to me from the New Mexico Border Authority. I am told that much of the increase in the past year is in the form of traffic related to Foxconn, the firm that produces computers and which now employs over 8000 workers right across the border from the Santa Teresa Crossing.
2 comments:
At the current rate of over $800 million per month, to about $10 billion this year, according to figures provided to me from the New Mexico Border Authority.
Those numbers seem to be wrong that is even more than California.
You have to make a distinction between trade and traffic. Mexican firms on the border are allowed to import inputs to their products duty free. These are not part of US-Mexico trade statistics but are part of the traffic at the ports. I believe this accounts for the discrpancy
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