Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blamed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border safety inspections for jamming up international trade, leaving at least 19,000 trucks loaded with $1.9 billion of goods stuck waiting in Mexico.
Lopez Obrador has sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. government over Texas-run commercial truck safety inspections that have caused major disruptions to cross-border trade since Sept. 20.
“There is a very hostile attitude on the part of the governor of Texas. … [T]hey are putting checkpoints on the U.S. side so that there is no fluid transit of goods from the U.S. to Mexico, and from Mexico to the U.S., they are obstructing the free transit of goods at customs,” Lopez Obrador said during a news conference Monday. “A diplomatic note … will be sent today against these measures, which harm both nations, which harm economic and commercial activity, and of course the normal movement of people.”
Supply chains along the U.S.-Mexico border have been disrupted the past several weeks as high numbers of daily migrant crossings and additional commercial truck inspections by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) snarl traffic at some of the busiest border crossings in the country.
The commercial truck safety inspections overseen by the DPS resumed Sept. 20 at the Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge in El Paso and the Camino Real Bridge in Eagle Pass.
DPS recently initiated similar inspections at the Del Rio border crossing in South Texas and the Marcelino Serna port of entry in Tornillo, Texas, about 32 miles south of El Paso.
DPS had similar inspections in Brownsville, Texas, in May and El Paso last December.
Mexico’s national freight transportation chamber, Canacar, said Sunday that 19,000 trucks were delayed at the border because of the Texas DPS inspections. The freight association said the trucks waiting at the border are carrying about $1.9 billion in goods.
“We consider that measures such as those promoted by the Texas government have a direct impact on supply chains and compromise the stability of thousands of companies on both sides of the border that generate sources of employment,” Canacar said in a news release.
The DPS inspections were halted in Eagle Pass on Friday but continued at Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge and the Marcelino Serna port of entry.
Wait times for trucks at the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge on Tuesday were about three hours in the general commercial lanes and over two hours for vehicles permitted in the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program lanes.
Cargo truck wait times at the Marcelino Serna port of entry in Tornillo were 20 minutes on Tuesday.
DPS officials said the renewed inspections were aimed at slowing smuggling activities by Mexican cartels.
“We hope that frequent enhanced commercial vehicle safety inspections will help deter cartel smuggling activity along our southern border while increasing the safety of our roadways,” DPS Director Steven McCraw said in a statement to the El Paso Times.
U.S. officials have criticized the DPS inspections as unnecessary.
“It’s all show because [DPS] cannot open the trucks,” U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told Border Report. “They can only check for brakes, they can only check for windshield wipers and stuff. They cannot open the cargo trailers.”
The border checkpoints launched by the Texas DPS are in addition to commercial truck inspections conducted by Mexican customs, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Abbott and Texas DPS officials have declined several requests for comment from FreightWaves on how effective the state-run commercial truck safety inspections have been for deterring smuggling or how long the inspections would continue.
Lopez Obrador said he has been in contact with President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the border situation.
“President Biden and the U.S. government officials do not agree [with the DPS inspections],” Lopez Obrador said. “These differences are manifested that affect both countries, not only Mexico, they also affect the economy in the U.S., they affect transportation in the U.S., they affect the citizens of the U.S., and we must continue to denounce these events.”
The El Paso Bridge of the Americas port of entry was reopened Tuesday to commercial traffic after being closed for three weeks as CBP agents were temporarily reassigned to help process migrants arriving in the region.
CBP closed El Paso’s Bridge of the Americas on Sept. 18 and temporarily moved all cross-border cargo truck inspections to the nearby Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge.
Cargo truck wait times at the Bridge of Americas on Tuesday were 35 minutes in both the general commercial and the FAST lanes.
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