By Ed Shugert / El Paso Times
Posted: 12/20/2009 12:00:00 AM MST
EL PASO — Kathy Neal, director of trade compliance for A.O. Smith Corp., was named the 2010 chair of the Border Trade Alliance earlier this month.
A.O. Smith, which had $2.3 billion in revenues in 2008, manufactures electric motors and water heating equipment. The company has extensive operations in El Paso and Juárez. Neal is responsible for managing trade compliance for company operations worldwide.
She has been on the Border Trade Alliance’s board of directors for three years and has been involved in customs brokering and supply chain logistics for more than 20 years.
Q In the announcement of your appointment as chair for the Border Trade Alliance, you said the BTA’s focus in 2010 will be on ensuring Customs and Border Protection is deploying enough resources to handle trade and travel at the ports of entry. What, specifically, would you like to see?
A The Border Trade Alliance would like to see Customs use more-effective staffing methods and push to add inspectors at border ports of entry … because they are short meeting adequate staffing at peak hours. They need to reduce the waiting times (to cross bridges) because long lines have a negative effect on the economy. Many of these ports of entry, when they were built, were not meant to handle the volume of traffic they have now. They need to have sufficient resources to handle the increased volumes of traffic using the land ports of entry.
Most of the added staff has gone to the Border Patrol to patrol areas between the ports of entry. We want more staff for Customs, which handles the security and traffic at the ports of entry.
Q In the El Paso area, the CBP has expanded the number of lanes at the Downtown bridge and extended hours at the Santa Teresa port of entry. What other local changes would you like to see?
A Better, improved staffing, better for FAST (Free and Secure Trade Program) shipments so they actually have quick access to the front of the line. At the (Bridge of the Americas), entry is restricted and FAST shipments don’t get their own lanes until they get near the inspection booths. Yes, it does move faster (than other commercial traffic lanes), but having their own access would be helpful.
Also, the CBP did a pilot program last year for 24-hour inspections at Zaragoza but stopped it after the economy dropped and shipments from the maquiladoras fell. As the economy recovers, we’re looking toward CBP management to work on a program to bring that back.
We’ve had the best relationship with CBP, and we work together toward better trade. Most CBP officials work very well with the trade community because they recognize our trade partnership.
Q The Metropolitan Planning Organization and the elected officials who are part of it are studying the need for another bridge between the Bridge of Americas and Zaragoza Bridge. Is a new bridge needed and, if so, where should it be built?
A I think we need a bridge that will be modern and up to date with the latest technology and that is fully staffed. We have advocated for a bridge for several years now. We went to Washington, D.C., to talk to elected officials about the need. We were hoping to get a low-risk, business-only bridge with dedicated commuter lanes and for FAST shipments. … Of course, we understand neighbors’ concerns (about increased traffic through residential streets) but there are ways to accommodate those concerns. Commercial traffic could be routed directly onto the Border Highway and never drive through neighborhoods. And if you look at an aerial view of that area, you can see Juárez has built many major roads from the maquilas that lead directly to the border. We should take advantage of that.
Q In February, $720 million of the stimulus money was dedicated to infrastructure upgrades for land ports of entry. But much of that money went to small, low-traffic ports instead of high-volume ports with long waits. What went wrong?
A It was very disheartening to the BTA because we worked very hard to get that money for CBP. The high-volume and high-traffic ports are where the spending is needed. I don’t want to speculate why that didn’t happen. Now, there are bills from Congressman (Silvestre) Reyes (D-El Paso) and Sen. (John) Cornyn (R-Texas) that are focused on getting more personnel dedicated to the ports.
Another thing the BTA is working on is improving CTPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism). One of the requirements for shippers to participate in the program is to improve security at the point of origin of shipments and throughout the supply chain. CBP has encouraged participation in CTPAT but there are benefits we are going to push for, additional benefits for trade partners that have spent so much time and money to qualify. Those added benefits include accelerated processing, more information sharing with CBP and front-of-the-line privileges at all ports of entry for all CTPAT shipments.
Ed Shugert may be reached at eshugert@elpasotimes.com; 546-6352.
Related legislation
# U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, have introduced bills in Congress that would add personnel and new infrastructure if passed:
# HR 1655, sponsored by Reyes and called the PORTS Act, or Putting Our Resources Towards Security Act, seeks to fund the creation of 5,000 Customs and Border Protection officers during fiscal years 2010-14 and seeks $1 billion for each fiscal year during 2010-14 for infrastructure improvements at the land border ports of entry.
# S2767, sponsored by Cornyn is called the Emergency Port of Entry Personnel and Infrastructure Funding Act of 2009. It seeks to inject $40 million for 250 CBP officers on the southwest border in fiscal year 2010 and, in the future, would add 5,000 CBP officers split between the northern and southern borders. Cornyn’s bill would also offer CBP officers recruitment and retention bonuses ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.
# As for infrastructure, Cornyn’s bill seeks $100 million for near-term infrastructure improvements at the land border ports. His overall bill calls for the authorization of $6 billion in total appropriations, of which $55 million would go to the incentive payments and $30 million would be used for Border Area Security Grants.
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