6A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
BUSINESS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17.2005
KC might be trade link Mexican company considers making Midwest office
BY GARANCE BURKE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deal close for customs facility in K.C.
SOURCES: Kansas City Scraight Port Inc.
Kansas City Southern Railway Company, ESRi
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Shipping American cars and electronics to Mexico may become much cheaper and faster early next year when the first Mexican customs facility in the United States is expected to open in the heart of the Midwest.
It may be nearly 1,000 miles to the border from Kansas City, but this industrial hub will soon start building an inland port that will whisk thousands of trucks through export inspections and shoot them back out onto the North American Free Trade Agreement corridor, where they can roll through the border without further delays.
The $3 million facility, which would be the first foreign customs office inside the United States, will likely be approved by the U.S. and Mexican governments by year's end and is scheduled to open next May, said Chris Gutierrez, president of Kansas City SmartPort Inc., a nonprofit organization promoting the project. Planners say manufacturing industries in the upper Midwest and Canada would be the first to benefit from the new customs operation, which they believe could expand to handle cargo from across the country.
Mexican government officials confirmed the two countries had agreed on the overall proposal, though both nations said finer points of the agreement were still being negotiated by customs officials — including security concerns and the legal standing of Mexican customs officials working in the United States.
After a visit to Kansas City in May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said
the pilot proposal was "bold and imaginative" and could transform Kansas City into a "major new trade link" that would fit well with new border security initiatives to pre-approve cargo.
"We've always had the railroad and the river and the airlines and the roads, but this will open up tremendous new business opportunities for Kansas City," said Kansas City councilwoman Bonnie Sue Cooper, who said she proposed the idea to the
Mexican Finance Minister Francisco Gil Diaz last year.
In the 1940s, Kansas City — at the intersection of two major interstate highways along the Missouri River
— was one of the country's largest rail distribution centers.
"Kansas City is the geographical heart of the United States and of the entire NAFTA region," said Everardo Suarez, Mexican consul general in Kansas City.
Coat weather comes
Photographed through a structure in front of Eaton Hall, a student walks up 15th Street. Temperatures were in the 30s Wednesday afternoon.
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