NAMI Programs


Advancing Public Awareness/Understanding
Facilitating Sustainable and Secure Trade and Development
Building Trinational Leadership through:
    North American Community Service


FACILITATING SUSTAINABLE AND SECURE TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

SMART BORDERS AND GREEN TRADE CORRIDORS

The Green Trade Corridors program is designed to provide information and environmental perspectives on the emerging trends in the transportation industry as they relate to trade corridors throughout North America. This is done with the end objective of striking a balance between trade and its environmental affects on communities in Canada, United States, and Mexico.


OVERVIEW

1999 - Inception of program as a result of meeting of transportation and trade corridor specialists to promote corridor awareness and reducing local environmental and social impacts on communities.

2000 - Trinational meeting between US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, and Mexican Foreign Secretary Rosario endorsing Green Trade Corridors concept.

Hosting a series of meetings with local developers, elected officials, and NGOs on creating a vision for the development of the NM-Mexico border, and the emerging trade corridor.

Organized, with New Mexico First, statewide Task Force to draft a strategic plan for the development of New Mexico’s border with Mexico to be finalized by the end of 2002.

New Mexico, Chihuahua Border

The U.S.-Mexico border is one of the most rapidly growing regions in North America, replete with its own unique set of issues. In a desert region that averages less than nine inches of rain per year, water is the most critical and precious resource available. It dictates the pace of growth as health is impact by lack of water; basic infrastructure such as sewage, electricity, and running water is non-existent along the Mexican side of the border and even parts of the U.S. side. The increase in trade (as a result of NAFTA) has brought on air and noise pollution, and the number of trucks passing through the ports of entry is increasing on a daily basis. The border population, currently around 12.4 million people, is expected to double by the year 2020, to over 25 million.

The New Mexico-Chihuahua portion of the border is no exception. There is a positive side to this picture, and that is an area known as Santa Teresa. The State of New Mexico has recently completed construction of a new, state-of-the-art international land port of entry with Mexico, designed to alleviate some of the bottlenecks found in the traditional bridge crossings in nearby El Paso. A new four-lane highway now links the port of entry with Interstate 10, the major East-West Interstate. Intermodal transfer centers are planned that will link trucks with rail and air and create a seamless flow of commerce. A binational city is being planned with residential communities along with industrial centers with manufacturing and warehousing.

The North American Institute, in its capacity as a trinational convening organization that fosters trans-border dialogue, is sponsoring a series of conferences in the southern part of New Mexico to promote discussion on the Santa Teresa development. NAMI sees the Santa Teresa region as an opportunity to learn from the other border cities such as San Diego/Tijuana, El Paso/Juarez, and Laredo/Nuevo Laredo, and create a new border crossing that is more environmentally friendly one that can handle the increase in truck traffic (up almost 30% since 1994). It would become a first-of-its-kind binational city that physically spans the border with planned long-term growth communities. NAMI is working with all the vested interests in the private sector, NGOs, State and Federal officials and academics to develop a series of meetings designed to bring these parties together to create a practical, sustainable vision for the area.


RELATED REPORTS

Green Corridors: NAFTA Trade Corridors and Environmental Cooperation University of Manitoba
MORE >

Trade Corridors in North America by John Wirth
MORE >

The Camino Real Trade Corridor by John Wirth
MORE >


RELATED LINKS

Canada: North American Free Trade Agreement - Land Transportation Standards Subcommittee
U.S. Dept. of Transportation: Binational Border Transportation Planning & Program Process
Trade Corridors Partnership
International Clean Transportation Corridor (ICTC-3)
North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation


For more information about the Green Trade Corridors Program, contact:

Sharon Kelley, Director
The North American Institute
708 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
505/982-3657
Email Sharon