“Wall’ talk creates more questions along busy U.S., Mexico border

With international trade rhetoric ramping up in this election year farmers on both sides of the border, U.S. and Mexican trade officials, and academics and political analysts are wondering what the future holds for agricultural trade with our southern neighbor? The issue points to growing problems that currently exist at border land ports that are now shadowed by political controversy, which could potentially create additional adversity in the years ahead. In spite of election-year negatives and cross-border trade challenges, a special research team sanctioned by the USDA’s Economic Research Service has recently conducted an extensive study to determine how the process of moving agricultural products across the border can be enhanced and improved. A team of nine researchers from both the U.S. and Mexico were charged with evaluating and recommending how to streamline the import/export of goods across the border, especially at busy land ports, in both a more efficient and secure manner in an effort to facilitate the increasing volumes of food and commodity products passing between the two nations...more