– March 2010

The Border Advocate

A monthly Border Trade Alliance newsletter

March 1, 2010

In This Issue

New BTA President Off and Running

BTA Heads to Capitol Hill in March

BTA In the News

New BTA President Off and Running

New BTA President Nelson Balido spends February visiting border communities

New BTA President Nelson Balido spent February visiting with key stakeholders all along the U.S.-Mexico border, listening to the concerns of the region's cross-border trade community and border cities and towns.

"It's important that I'm visiting with BTA's constituents on the border as much as possible," Balido said. "We can't claim to be the border's voice in Washington unless I'm on the border and seeing the challenges the cross-border trade community is facing day in and day out."

Highlights

Spoke before participants of Leadership Mid-Valley, sponsored by the Weslaco (TX) Chamber of Commerce.

Traveled throughout Cameron County to meet with representatives from the county, the City of Brownsville and the Port of Brownsville.

The Fresh Produce of the Americas in Nogales, Ariz. (left) hosted an outstanding stakeholders meeting featuring representatives of the Nogales Port Authority; Nogales Community Development; the Nogales Chamber of Commerce; produce importers; and McDonald's. The discussion gave us some key issues to take to Washington.

February wrapped up in El Paso and southern New Mexico. Nelson had the opportunity to visit with a number of customs brokers in the market and learn about the issues they're facing in the trade regulatory environment.

Nelson also had the opportunity to visit with representatives from Customs and Border Protection (right) charged with the important missions of facilitating legitimate trade and travel and enforcing law and order at El Paso' s ports of entry.

Finally, the team at the New Mexico Border Authority (left) welcomed Nelson and the BTA to learn about that agency's mission and issues facing the New Mexico-Chihuahua border.

Policy Matters

BTA trip to D.C. snowed out, rescheduled for mid-March

The BTA's first visit to Capitol Hill for 2010 was, unfortunately, postponed due to the Capital region's record snowfall. But we're set to return in mid-March.

We'll be meeting with Members and staff from the border regions as well as key agencies to discuss the issues facing the BTA's consituents.

While in Washington, we'll be discussing the need to improve the land border ports of entry staffing levels and infrastructure and the BTA's support for two key bills that advance those goals.

We'll also be raising our concerns over the Department of Homeland Security's push to hire more air marshals, which while needed, could result in CBP officers being hired away from the border.

We'll also report on what we heard from our constituents and sponsors during February's border tour. One issue that we're hearing a lot of is whether C-TPAT – the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism – is truly delivering worthwhile benefits to its members, or whether it's placing participants under uncessesary scrutiny.

The BTA is the border's voice on Capitol Hill. We'll report in next month's issues on our takeaways from the visits.

About the Border Trade Alliance

Founded in 1986, the Border Trade Alliance (BTA) is a grassroots, non-profit organization that serves as a forum for participants to address key issues affecting trade and economic development in North America. Working with entities in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the BTA advocates on behalf of policies and initiatives designed to improve border affairs and trade relations among the three nations.

Our mission is to initiate, monitor and influence public policy and private sector initiatives for the facilitation of international trade and commerce through advocacy, education, issue development, research and analysis, and strategic planning.

BTA in the news