Business & Economy

Northern Mexico businesses accuse Texas governor of trade obstruction

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Sept 28 (EFE). – The security controls implemented last week by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, have prevented Mexican exports worth 1.5 billion dollars from crossing the border, business people from northern Mexico denounced this Thursday.

The private sector of Ciudad Juárez, which borders the United States, criticized that this issue is political and has not been resolved by the governments of both countries, affecting more than 5,000 workers.

The problem is no longer in customs, where for two weeks, the personnel was diverted to process migrants.

According to them, the main obstacle now is the slow inspections by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which keep the loads crossing very slowly.

The National Vice President of Maquiladora and Borders of the National Chamber of Processing Industries, Thor Salayandía, pointed out that the damage is severe since the economy of the entire border depends on the maquiladora.

“Let’s be clear: the problem is no longer the customs. It is Governor Abbott who is strangling the maquiladora. He is politicizing the immigration issue and attacking Joe Biden and Mexico on this issue, which affects all of us,” Salayandía said.

“He has the agents doing some checks where he is no longer looking for migrants. He wants to hurt the maquila and is doing that,” he added.

“It is regrettable that only one person, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is the one who is causing all this damage to both the economy of Juarez and the companies that own the maquiladoras. It is very unfortunate that so far no one has been able to stop him, not even President Biden,” the businessman said.

Manuel Sotero Suarez, vice president of the National Chamber of Cargo Transportation (Canacar), noted the passivity of the Mexican and US federal governments.

“No one is coordinating operations to solve or stop the problem. The governor of Texas is affecting the economy of both countries with between 10,000 and 11,000 stranded loads,” Suárez said.

“If we multiply that by $135,000 per load, we are talking about $1.5 billion, which is not a loss, but goods that have not been able to cross,” he added.

He explained that of the 3,500 loads that generally go from Mexico to the United States through Juárez daily, only 1,600 are currently crossing.

Because they cannot export, the small warehouses of the maquiladoras are filling up and cannot continue to produce. EFE

mc/mcd/ar

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