Deputy Secretary Victor Mendez
North American Sustainable Economic Development Summit
Irving, TX
August 26, 2014
As Prepared For Delivery
Thank you for that introduction, José [Zozaya, President of Kansas City Southern’s Mexico Unit].
And I want to thank Al [Zapanta, President of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce] and the Chamber for sponsoring today’s program.
Good morning, everyone! It’s an honor to be here, and to be part of this distinguished panel.
At the U.S. Department of Transportation, we know that a strong domestic transportation system is essential to the economic health and security of our nation.
But in order to compete in an increasingly interconnected and global economy, we also know that our transportation network must align closely with our trading partners to ensure the accessibility and reliability that travelers and shippers demand.
It’s no coincidence that our North American friends and neighbors are also among our largest trading partners.
The United States has enjoyed a strong cooperative relationship with Mexico on transportation issues for years.
And both of our nations know that we can do more – and do better – if we work together.
This is a priority for President Obama, for Secretary Foxx, and for all of us at the Department of Transportation.
And thanks to our close communication with Secretary Ruiz Esparza and his leadership team, we have framed a broad, comprehensive agenda to improve the transportation connectivity between our nations.
This agenda includes economic collaboration, regulatory cooperation, and border facilitation.
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Last September, Secretary Foxx traveled to Mexico with Vice President Biden to launch the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue.
This meeting was an important opportunity to advance strategic economic priorities that will promote growth, job creation, and global competitiveness in both the United States and Mexico.
Transportation – and particularly freight planning – played a key role in the discussion.
Improving the way we move freight is one of our top priorities at the Department of Transportation.
By 2050, America will be home to up 100 million more people.
And our freight network – to support them – will need to move roughly twice the amount of freight we currently do.
This reality is why Secretary Foxx and all of us at DOT have been calling on Congress to take up the GROW AMERICA Act – our long-term vision for increasing transportation investments to keep pace with growing demand.
In addition to tackling our national infrastructure deficit, improving safety, and providing funding reliability to states and localities, GROW AMERICA also makes a big investment in freight – allocating $10 billion to expand and improve our multimodal freight network.
This new grant program would build on the work DOT is already doing to develop a National Freight Strategic Plan that will help guide our freight investments for years to come.
This plan will look at freight movement in the U.S. from a multimodal perspective that includes rail, highways, and ports.
This will allow us to tackle the seams in our freight system – and improve the way goods move from manufacturers to markets.
It will also help us understand where resources should be allocated, and identify key corridors and gateways that support international trade.
We’re doing this with the help of a National Freight Advisory Council – which is made up of local and state government officials, industry and labor representatives, and environmental and civil society organizers who represent a wide range of viewpoints and constituencies affected by freight policy.
With their insight, and the Department’s leadership, we will soon have a comprehensive vision for the future of freight in America for the first time in our nation’s history.
But as we move forward with our freight planning, we also recognize how important it is for us to closely coordinate with our North American neighbors to ensure our transportation systems can work together.
We know we can benefit from sharing and using common freight data, compatible planning techniques, and information on future freight trends.
And our nations should be able to coordinate our planning efforts to ensure that our common gateways are as compatible and aligned as possible.
We’re already working with Mexico to assess the performance of key corridors of interest to both of our nations – and to share information on both of our national freight plans moving forward.
Earlier this spring, state and local freight planners from America and Mexico met in San Diego to discuss freight methodologies and coordinate planning approaches.
We are trying to organize a similar peer exchange on the northern border soon, and we’re hopeful that this will become a trilateral initiative.
We’re also recommending that each state in America develop their own freight plans to help inform the Federal planning process.
And we’re asking border states, in particular, to make sure their specific cross-border freight connectivity needs are reflected.
By the time DOT completes our National Freight Strategic Plan in late 2015, we anticipate being in close alignment with freight plans in both Mexico and Canada – and we will have instituted a process that will allow us to keep our plans in alignment moving forward.
This will help our nations be responsive to the growing needs of our expanding economies – and allow us to benefit from each other’s prosperity.
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Expanding economic opportunity isn’t the only area where the United States and Mexico can work together.
We also have many opportunities to increase safety through coordinated rulemaking and standards-setting processes.
Under the Regulatory Cooperation Councils with both Mexico and Canada, we’re already working closely together to address safety standards for cars, commercial motor vehicles, and the transport of hazardous materials.
For example, as Mexico develops new commercial motor vehicle safety inspection regulations, DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has worked closely with the Mexican Secretariat of Communication and Transportation to help ensure compatibility with U.S. regulations.
And under the North American Leaders Summit, we will build on these safety efforts by working on a trilateral basis to tackle rail standards, as well.
Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. rail leaders are committed to meeting annually to review new safety rulemaking developments and make sure our rail safety rules are as compatible as possible.
As we look ahead, emerging technologies will also provide us with new opportunities to work together.
Manufacturers around the globe are developing Intelligent Transportation Systems that have the potential to improve the safety and efficiency of all modes of transportation.
As each of our nations begins to implement different ITS technologies, we must coordinate and share our ITS standards in order to maximize the connectivity of our transportation systems in the future.
Building on ITS cooperative efforts focused initially at the border, DOT leaders will soon be meeting with our Mexican counterparts to discuss and share some of our ITS plans from a more national perspective, and outline a shared vision for future ITS collaboration.
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Finally, there’s perhaps no area that requires more cooperation and partnership between our nations than at our borders.
With $1.25 billion in two-way trade and nearly one million people legally crossing between the United States and Mexico each day, infrastructure on our border is vital to each of our economies, as well as the social and cultural ties between our nations.
The need for improved infrastructure is great.
Aging facilities and limited resources at our border crossings cause long, costly waits for people and goods traveling between our nations.
Now, we have made significant progress in recent years.
The U.S.-Mexico 21st Century Border Process initiated by Presidents Obama and Peña Nieto is giving direction to our bilateral, interagency border facilitation efforts.
The multiple Federal and state players who have a role in planning border infrastructure projects are working more closely together, and with our Mexican counterparts.
And under the U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee for Transportation Planning, we are developing six bi-national, regional border infrastructure master plans – which, taken together, will cover the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
These plans will allow us to better coordinate our border infrastructure plans moving forward.
Additionally, numerous projects are being worked on that will help improve traffic flow between our nations.
A $735 million, three-phase expansion is currently under way at the border crossing in San Diego, California – the busiest land crossing in our hemisphere.
The land port in Nogales, Arizona, will complete a $187 million renovation in October.
The first new rail crossing in more than 100 years will soon be completed in Brownsville, Texas.
And those are just a few examples.
But, with demand at our border crossings increasing – and necessary projects continuing to outpace the federal and state resources to fund them – we must do more to meet the needs for new and updated infrastructure along the border.
We must come together – public and private stakeholders alike – to find ways to bring innovative financing to the table.
While border infrastructure certainly presents particular challenges, we are seeing promise in innovative projects like the Otay Mesa East crossing and the Cross Border Airport Terminal between San Diego and Tijuana – which are looking to use public-private partnerships to finance construction.
These are the kinds of creative approaches we need to see more of – and we are committed to working with both Mexico and Canada to determine how innovative financing can be applied more widely across our common borders.
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As you can all see, there are many areas where the United States and Mexico stand to benefit by working together – now and in the future.
We certainly have a full plate – but the potential benefits from our coordination and collaboration are too great to ignore.
Both of our nations know that transportation connectivity is vital to economic growth – strengthening international trade and making our products and services more competitive in the global marketplace.
By working together to increase the efficiency and compatibility of our transportation systems, the U.S. and Mexico have an opportunity to lay the foundation for expanded trade, tourism, and economic development that will benefit travelers and businesses on both sides of the border.
Thank you again for the invitation to participate here today, and I look forward to the panel discussion.