Joint U.S.-Mexico cargo inspections begin at San Diego border crossing

SAN DIEGO — In an effort to reduce wait times for hundreds of trucks that each day move goods from Tijuana to San Diego, Mexican customs officials for the first time are working side by side with their U.S. counterparts at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

Under a pilot program begun last week, U.S. and Mexican officials operate out of adjacent booths at the busy U.S. port, working separately but simultaneously as they inspect products crossing into the United States.

Known as Unified Cargo Processing, the program has been successful at other ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border, including Nogales, Douglas and San Luis in Arizona and Calexico across from the Baja California capital of Mexicali. Wait times have fallen by as much as 85 percent for qualified shippers.

The Otay Mesa Port of Entry is the second-busiest U.S. commercial port of entry on the Mexican border, with an average of more than 3,500 truck crossings a day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The process of entering San Diego can stretch to five or six hours if a truck is twice pulled over for secondary inspection — first as it leaves Mexico, and again as it enters the United States.

Last Friday, a line of trucks streamed steadily from Tijuana into the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. In one lane, drivers leaned through their windows as they handed paperwork to Michael Horn, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. Horn immediately shared some of the documents with Rosa Maria Barrientos — an official with Mexico’s Tax Administration Service — who worked in a separate booth. Within minutes, the truck in question was cleared to continue to the United States.

Had either of the officers questioned the shipment, the truck would have been pulled over for an inspection conducted jointly by U.S. and Mexican officials.

The joint inspections involve only about a third of the northbound truck traffic, limited to shippers who are enrolled in a trusted traveler program known as Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism.

Tijuana manufacturers are expected to benefit from these inspections as they export products such as televisions, audio speakers, prosthetics and pacemakers from Mexico to the United States.

Toyota, which operates a Tacoma pickup manufacturing plant in Tijuana, is among the main potential beneficiaries.

U.S. customs officials have said they expect the program to cut inspection times in half.