Benefits, challenges of state’s trade flows
For millennia, New Mexico has been a strategic crossroads for transcontinental and international trade, both of which have brought tremendous opportunities and critical challenges to the state and its communities. While these trade flows have coursed through the state’s many regions, few strategic, publicly accessible tools have been created to help New Mexico’s public and private sector leaders understand these trade-related impacts from a statewide perspective.
Just 25 years ago, China was quickly becoming the United States’ leading trade partner. Since then, overall trade between the United States and Asia has flourished, and the trade flows along Interstate 10 and the Union Pacific Sunset Line, both of which cross through the Santa Teresa region, have grown dramatically. The recent construction and operation of the Union Pacific Santa Teresa Intermodal Ramp to handle these increased east-west flows in New Mexico is a testament to the value of this region for transcontinental trade.
Meanwhile, as NAFTA was coming into effect and U.S.-Mexico trade began to expand exponentially, New Mexico decided to construct a new port of entry in the Santa Teresa region to benefit from these growing trade flows, along that same strategic Union Pacific and Interstate 10 corridor. The port of entry remained relatively quiet until the arrival of the Foxconn plant (which produces Dell products) directly across from Santa Teresa in Chihuahua. In fact, 91 percent of exports and 84 percent of imports through the Santa Teresa port of entry are, according to the census, computer-related machinery and parts.
These developments and assets are of critical value to New Mexico, and the Santa Teresa trade corridor is likely to remain vitally important as long as international trade continues to grow. But how can the region, its communities and the state work together collaboratively to make sure we continue to prosper if these trade flows decrease, or if manufacturing relocates due to tariffs or some other external factor? More importantly, how can current pressures surrounding wages, water quality, public education and public investments in Santa Teresa best be managed?
To help answer these questions, a new report from the Hunt Institute provides a comprehensive and historical view of the Santa Teresa region, the first of its kind, so that community leaders have the data, maps and tools to better understand its role in international commerce and the state’s economy. The report, titled “The Santa Teresa, New Mexico Region,” uses state and federal databases to present a community and market analysis of the conditions and trends in the region. It is not only a celebration of the assets that exist in the region, but also a guide to the opportunities and challenges that we face together as a state.
In particular, the report contains quantitative descriptions of Santa Teresa’s landownership, population, wages, educational attainment, employment, business activity, manufacturing output, water, energy and telecommunication resources, and international trade. It also provides a series of original maps that locate and identify the region’s assets and strategic position.
Hopefully, with such information and knowledge, New Mexico’s communities, institutions and leaders, working together — across regions — will be better able to determine the best direction for the road ahead. For, just as New Mexico has always been at the forefront of trade, it also stands on the threshold of the future.
Patrick Schaefer is the executive director of the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness in El Paso and a graduate of the UNM School of Law and St. John’s College.