Pro-trade group seeks border bucks

Pro-trade group seeks border bucks The Border Trade Alliance on Friday urged House leaders to include $301 million in an economic recovery spending bill for upgrading Customs inspection facilities at land ports of entry.
   The amount is equal to that in draft legislation circulating in the Senate.
   The BTA, which represents border and trade interests, said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner that land ports of entry are too small or lack necessary physical capacity to efficiently handle growth in cross-border traffic. Land ports were the conduits for $720 billion in trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2007. The group noted that overall international trade directly supports more than 12 million U.S. workers and farmers.
   “An historic gap exists between growing levels of cross-border trade and a lack of federal funding to support it. Over time, this gap in funding, coupled with cross-border delays and inadequate staffing, have undermined U.S. global competitiveness. Too, inadequate infrastructure can be blamed for increases in the cost of doing business. Typically, such increases are passed along to the consumer in the form of higher costs at the cash register,” the letter said.
   Last month 11 border state congressmen urged that any economic stimulus bill include $5 billion in infrastructure investment for land ports of entry.
   The $5 billion figure is Customs and Border Protection’s estimate of how much money is needed to expand and upgrade facilities to meet today’s new security mission and trade volumes. ' Eric Kulisch