U.S., Mexico negotiating to set up customs port in Kansas City

KLTV News ^ | November 16, 2005 | n/a

[DumpsterDiver]

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Shipping U-S vehicles and electronics to Mexico may become much cheaper and faster next year. That's when the first Mexican customs facility in the U-S is expected to open in the Midwest.

It's nearly one-thousand miles to the border from Kansas City. But the area will soon start building an inland port to whisk thousands of trucks through export inspections and back onto the North American Free Trade Agreement corridor.

The three (M) million dollar facility is expected to be approved by the U-S and Mexican governments by year's end.

Chris Gutierrez with nonprofit Kansas City SmartPort says the complex is scheduled to open next May.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner has said the pilot proposal is "bold and imaginative" and could transform Kansas City into a major new trade link.

[hedgetrimmer]

The port will be located on Mexican sovereign territory:

Meanwhile, SmartPort negotiated with the Mexican Customs service to locate a facility in Kansas Cityon Mexican sovereign territoryto clear exports to Mexico, thus avoiding clogged boarders. This will be the first in the nation.

And it will "test barriers to trade" like sovereign borders and constitutional laws, no doubt.

SmartPort will soon manage demonstration shipments to measure current inland trade processing practice, test technologies that make inland trade processing possible, and discover barriers of all kinds (regulatory, procedural, infrastructure) that impede inland trade processing.

http://www.southern.org/ideabank/global/trade/printer-friendly/mo2.shtml

[hedgetrimmer]

The Mexican government is committed to the project. One stumbling block, however, is that by Mexican law brokers must be part of the operations. Most Mexican broker facilities are on the U.S. (Laredo, Texas) side of the border. They are legal entities on the Mexican side, but are performing most of their work on the U.S. side. There is still a need for drayage, since many U.S. carriers don't use their trucks into Mexico, just trailers. The Mexican brokers must take possession of the freight in order to have it move. Smart-Port is very aware of the need and has been proactive in meeting with the Nuevo Laredo Customs Brokers Association, among others.

http://www.logisticstoday.com/sNO/6656/iID/20895/LT/displayStory.asp

[DumpsterDiver]

Thanks for those posts, hedgetrimmer. If you're interested, there's a new thread about this at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1529526/posts.