U.S./Mexico Cross-Border Issues: X-20 both leads and participates in a number of forums that seek to address cross-border facilitation issues including taxation, licensing, bridge placement, border planning, and commercial disputes.

Activity: Improving the efficiency of cross-border transportation movements to effect greater safety, speed of processing, and infrastructure development

Background: During the past two decades, the southwest border states have experienced sharp increases in cross-border commercial traffic. The Department of Transportation has worked with Mexico and the key Federal inspection agencies to explore ways to better facilitate cross-border traffic. Many of our efforts grew out of the Border Infrastructure and Facilitation Task Force Recommendations for Improved U.S. Border Operations, which was published in October 1994. The report was the culmination of an interagency effort, spearheaded by DOT under the auspices of the National Economic Council, to explore ways to improve cross-border commerce.

Another step in this direction was the formation of the U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee on Transportation Planning (JWC), which was created by a Memorandum of Understanding in April 1994. The JWC includes federal transport officials from both countries and representatives from all of the U.S. and Mexican border states. The Federal Highway Administration co-chairs the JWC for DOT, with its counterparts from Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT). The group works to develop more comprehensive planning of border transportation infrastructure, including alternatives such as redirecting traffic from busy crossings to underutilized facilities. It also brings together representatives of major crossings to broaden the coordination of infrastructure planning.

The Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) includes a National Corridor Planning & Development and Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program (Sections 1118 & 1119), which provides dedicated funding for congested border crossings and transportation corridors that are important to the movement of international cargoes. The program has been authorized at $140 million each year since FY 1999, and since FY 2000 has been heavily directed by Congress. A total of $121.8 million in grants was issued under this program for FY-2000 and an additional $123 million for FY 2001. The Northern Border received about $62 million (about 7%) of the funds awarded under the program from FY 1999 to 2002. Additional funding went for projects for which some portion of the project was in the Northern border area.

DOT works with the key federal inspection agencies to better coordinate the clearance and control of international cargoes that enter the United States. The U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the General Services Administration (GSA) were key participants in the work of the Task Force. DOT further coordinates its efforts with the U.S. Department of State’s Committee on Bridges and Border Crossings, which reviews applications for Presidential Permits to construct or expand U.S.-Mexico border crossing facilities, particularly international bridges. All federal inspection agencies, including DOT, must approve these applications before a permit may be issued. Within DOT, the OST Office of International Transportation and Trade reviews the applications from a policy perspective and coordinates comments from the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the Federal Railroad Administration.

Positive outcomes from these cooperative interagency efforts include the development of several technological innovations. International Trade Data Systems (ITDS) have been funded and tested by DOT in cooperation with similar efforts by other federal inspection agencies. The objective is to create a paperless border clearance process that speeds the flow of cross-border commerce by eliminating time-consuming paperwork and other delays.

Revised on Friday, January 16, 2004
Content is provided by Allen Wiener
(202) 366-9530