McAllen presses Obama administration open Anzalduas to cargo traffic

McALLEN — Allowing commercial truck traffic on the county’s newest international bridge before 2015 could boost Reynosa’s factories and attract new investment to create jobs, McAllen city leaders told the Obama administration’s top trade official Monday.

Hours before attending the official opening of the Anzalduas International Bridge, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk met with local lawmakers, business leaders and city officials, some of whom lobbied Kirk to support their efforts to open the bridge to trade in 2012 or sooner.

Pharr city officials, who have opposed the effort, said they were not invited.

“We seem to have lost perspective as to the very reason we opened the bridge,” said Mike Allen, former head of the McAllen Economic Development Corp. who was instrumental in the early 1990s in securing permits for the new crossing. “They have to allow trailers clear across the bridge.”

Under a federal permit, cargo traffic is barred from Anzalduas until 2015 or when the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge averages 15,000 vehicles a week — the bridge now sees about 9,000 a day.

McAllen officials, who have said they had to agree to the timeline in order to secure the permit, have argued a second cargo crossing could save manufacturers money by reducing the amount of time spent crossing the border, which in turn could spur more investment in factories domestically and in Mexico.

Pharr officials have threatened legal action if the permit is changed. They have argued the timeline was partly to ensure that Pharr’s bridge would be a profitable investment for taxpayers.

“We went through five years of economic loss before we started making any money,” said Jesse Medina, the city’s bridge director. “It took our persistence and our taxpayers’ patience to be able to last.”

Kirk, a former Dallas mayor who unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in 2002, would not say if he supported McAllen but did add that he would relay the message to President Barack Obama.

While a new timeline was among their top concerns, officials also outlined other problems they said are a roadblock to international trade. If there was a theme to officials’ laundry list Monday, it was to save money for the area’s manufacturers.

McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez said the government needs to boost staffing of federal agencies at the border to speed up inspections of incoming trucks. Cortez also said that the federal government needs to address problems with U.S. visas that are preventing Mexican businessmen from living in and working in the U.S.

“(Kirk) understands trade very well and if anyone will come up with a solution to these problems it will be Ambassador Kirk,” Cortez said.

Other city leaders had similar praise for Kirk, in contrast to their initial lukewarm reception to Obama during the presidential campaign. Two years ago, then-Sen. Barack Obama’s repeated criticism of free trade drew the ire of many in the Valley who were concerned that Obama could make good on a promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Valley’s normally pro-trade community had been concerned the campaign rhetoric signaled that Obama would be more inclined to protectionism, which they feared would come at the expense of the international trade that has been a boon for the Valley.

Since taking office, however, Obama has said that he will not reopen or renegotiate the agreement and pro-trade city leaders said they have found an ally in the White House. But Keith Patridge, president and chief executive officer of the McAllen EDC, said there is some concern that Democrats in Congress will take a more protectionist stance, given the unrelenting economic recession.

“It’s an old idea ‘If I’m losing jobs, we need to stop the job flow and hunker down and protect ourselves,” he said.

In an interview after the morning meeting, Kirk said the administration is trying to balance promotion of free trade and the creation of American jobs — goals he said could be accomplished by creating new “green” industries to fill the vacuum of unemployment left by companies that have fled to foreign soil for cheaper labor and by creating a more educated workforce.

In Reynosa, much of the industrial growth has come at the cost of jobs in many manufacturing-centric cities in the U.S. During the presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly referenced how the loss off 1,600 jobs at a Maytag plant in 2004 decimated the city of Galesburg, Ill. Those jobs had moved to Reynosa.

“We understand companies are going to move to find lower costs of production,” Kirk said.

He also referenced an African proverb, saying that in global trade, when things are sour in one country, it hurts the trade partnership largely.

“You should take no comfort from the hole in my end of the boat,” he said.

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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.