Up next here on cspan 3 a discussion from the Woodrow Wilson center on trade, Border Security and other issues along the u. S. mexico border. This lasts about an hour. All right, were going to get started here. Over the next i would say most important part of the day. Thank you all. Im the chair of the Border Trade Alliance and my day job is Vice President of the San Diego Regional Chamber of commerce. I have to start by saying this is my favorite conference each year. You know, whether youre new to the conversation on the u. S. mexico relationship and the border or youre an expert, the pan lists and the speakers provide thought provoking comments. Al and this panel is no exception. Were really pleased to hear and have them here. Ill run through and introduce them, but to kind of frame the conversation, you know, these panelists they have lived and breathed and in a couple cases run the border the Border Management ports of entry. So well cover a variety of factors that Border Management entails which is very complicated operation. We have to ensure security and at the same time facilitate trade and travel and do this across the 2,000 mile border. With that that entails two countries. Their respective local and state governments. Politics, the private sector. Good thing that funding is unlimited. Our speakers will talk that was a joke, we know that. We have no money. Our speakers will talk about physical border infrastructure, staffing, implementation of programs such as were mentioned previously. The united cargo processing, joint inspections. Perhaps we can talk about southbound inspections as well. What does the 21st century Border Management look like, new technology, additional ports of entry as the ambassador mentioned theyre widely inadequate and need updated and modernization. Then of course talking about naftas replacement. The usmca and in particular the trade facilitation chapter, the customs chapter, what does it mean for Border Management . And improving efficiencies at the border. So im excited to hear what each of you have to say. Lets get started. We have with us with more than 25 years of experience in banking, startups and media companies. Gustavo is on the National Organization based on in san diego. Hes a cofounder of a commercial Real Estate Company in sonora, also on the board of the king Stone Financial partners and a Nonprofit Foundation of choice for u. S. Donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in baja, california, and latin america. Joining us to his left is he served for seven years as technical secretary of the Foreign Relations commission in the senate of the republic of mexico and he served as the ministry of finance and public credit for two years. Since 2015, he has been part of the Tax Administration service as coordinator of advisers, general Customs Administration and central administrator of customs planning and International Affairs serving as the minister representative in washington, d. C. Thank you for joining us. Most notably though, ill say he received the chambers cross border Collaboration Award last year on behalf of where we honored them for their working partnership so i added that to his resume. We have the cofounder of the Ct Strategies which provides services to those seeking current and innovative insight into Border Management and supply Chain Management around the world. He previously served as assistant commissioner for International Trade at the u. S. Customs and border protection. He oversaw workforce of over 1,000 employees and a a budget of over 300 million and he was responsible for leading the most extensive trade Transformation Initiative in history. Throughout his 30plus year career at cbpn, he has been a pioneer and a leader developing broad and far reaching national and International Programs to support antiterrorism and trade transformation policies. Mr. Meyer joined Kansas City Southern in 2006 as executive vice and chief Financial Officer in 2008. He was named executive Vice President of sales and marketing named and marketing. Named president and chief executive officer since 2016. He has a broad range of experience from various Senior Executive positions. He has held at kcs over the last ten years and served as the chief Financial Officer and a corporate Vice President and treasurer of dade bearings Holdings Incorporated and served as Vice President of Burlington Northern santa fe corporation. Thank you so much for joining us the four of you. So well start with opening questions here. Just kind of broad questions t but, you know, if you can give an overview. But in particular, for each of you, ill provide a focus. Alan, if you could start us off from your history and your prior work at cbp if you can talk about the evolution of the cbp and the relationship and that history. Absolutely. Its a pleasure to be here. I want to thank the Wilson Center for this opportunity. Relative to the question, you heard part of my resume, its in the thing. Its in the material, but i wore a uniform for 15 years in the field at several locations. I came to headquarters, only wanted to spend five years here. 9 11 happened, unfortunately i became a headquarters lifer so i was able to serve at the pleasure of great cbp leadership. So i was there right after 9 11 so relative to my background what was the cooperation, it was over the top fabulous. They have always been great partners. You have to put this in perspective. 60,000 employees at cbp currently, 59,995 of them are Career Personnel and your leadership at cbp has a long established evolving relationship with their partners in sat. I was telling somebody earlier, ill tell you how strong it was. Theres an individual an esteemed individual who recently retired from sat. He was here is stationed in washington, d. C. Most of you already know who im talking about. Mr. Martin. I constantly reminded him after being in country for 24 straight years his children are more american than my child. And that relationship has always been strong. It continues to be strong. And to close, youll notice the previous secretary would talk about the relationship with her counterparts. The acting secretary at this point always talks about his relationship. Go on any kind of youtube or whatever query, robert perez the current career Deputy Commissioner and hes always talking about a wonderful relationship. So regardless now that aim retired i guess i can say it, regardless of what the rhetoric is out of the white house, the relationship at the Agency Department level is fabulous. Thank you. I think thats critical to note because without that cooperation, we dont have Border Management on either side. You cant run it just one sided. You know, if you could from the mexican perspective, and currently at sat, cbps counterpart, your work that youre doing today. Thank you. Thank you. Its great for me to be here and to share this. And thank you to all of the center and to the alliance for this opportunity. I think i mean, i will echo what alan just said. I think that sat and cbp relationship is at its best. Honestly, i dont think its been better. I think and the thing is that in im sorry, im not a politician. But we spend our days we dont spend our days thinking on how to keep our jobs. We spend our days doing the job. So we dont need to so we really take care of the day to day basis. So we are we are building a great partnership. I mean, alan said it very well. My predecessor, he was here for 24 years. Then he helped in that. We are keeping that up. And i think that these this has a processing product that you have heard about. And the best thing theyre creating of course i mean, theyre doing a lot of good for the business community. For the stakeholders. Reducing the times, the border wait times from three hours to 45 minutes or even in some ports of entry down to 15 minutes. Yes, thats great. But what these pilots are doing theyre creating or Building Trust between both organizations. Theyre Building Trust within both customs officers. Up and with this and with trust comes a great partnership. I totally agree we are doing great and well continue to do so. Could we have accomplished unified cargo processing without that partnership . I think probably not. You know, i think thats one of the most recent examples and proof of that partnership. Can i respond to that . Because many people may not know the significance of what had to be in the partnership. If you go back and look at preclearance, true preclearance, not prescreening or where youre reviewing and like a program csi, Container Security initiative and youre ensuring that things are safe before you get on the vessel. Actual clearance has been in the air environment. People say why is it in the air environment . Because the common thinking is once that aircraft leaves and its airborne, its not going to get compromised. So to think about why for so long theres never been true preclearance of cargo especially with between u. S. And mexico, u. S. And canada is because where you do that clearance, there has to be an extremely high level of confidence that that conveyance is not going to be compromised while its still on the ground. Therefore, completely undermining the preclearance. So that requires a cooperation and a trust in both parties to actually go from preclearance of air environment to preclearance of land environment. Thank you. You know, i think its really important to review that history and the current relationship so that we can figure out how to improve efficiencies at the border. Where we go for the future to go achieve a truly 21st century border, efficient border, and from the private sector perspective, pat, if you could talk about the importance, why is this even important . What does it mean for trade . You know, on the ground . Just capacity and cost and efficiency and competitiveness. You know, we move a tremendous amount of ar go as the congressman mentioned, loreto, our major cross border gateway is the busiest cargo gateway across the entire border whether youre talking about trucks or trains, and there is limited capacity, and lots of room for growth. And part of my i call it my elevator speech. I spent a lot of time in washington promoting nafta, u. S. Mca, is to talk about the opportunities that the United States of america has to increase exports to mexico. Yes, we have a trade deficit with mexico. Some of that is not politically driven, but there are opportunities in front of us in the next three, five years and beyond, i believe, to significantly reduce that trade deficit and two of the Biggest Companies is our company is trying to build capacity to do that. Our Refined Petroleum products as mexican reform. It was not part of nafta, and then plastics as a result of all the petrochemical plants, processors and refineries. A lot of products go into auto parts and Water Bottles and everything that can be made out of those products. In order for the country to take advantage and really fully realize the opportunities for export growth in from the u. S. Into mexico, we have to improve the processes for moving cargo across the border. We cant do it by physical infrastructure. Its just too expensive. And some of the things that will, im sure, well talk about whether its inspections, or crews, again, the congressman mentioned the international crew. The way a train crosses the border is ridiculous. When we explain it, its like were in the 18th century. For those of us not familiar, what does it look like . The train goes to the middle of the bridge. T out at the worst possible, the narrowest possible bottle neck. Its a single line bridge and it stops. The crew gets off whether its northbound or southbound, walks back to its home, probably a mile or more. Im told the weather in loreto can be nasty. They walk back. The receiving crew gets on the bridge and takes the train across. Not only is that taking up an enormous amount. Thats 20 or 30 minutes. So think about how much capacity that is soaking up. Dead, just because that train stopped. Within 10 miles of that point, there are big rail yards on both sides of the border that you can get that train out of the way, ten miles out of the way. Safe, secure, its not blocking the grade crossings and interfering with First Responders and traffic in the communities. And do the work thats necessary. So if we can change the process, thats just one part of it. Inspections, customs, Everything Else is a contributing factor as well. Our modelling shows we could almost double the capacity at that bridge without spending how much money and how much time would it take to build a new international bridge . Without spending hundreds of millions or billions of dollars and taking five, ten years to or as the congressman suggested, building overpasses for i dont know how many, 20, 25 grade crossings . Thats another billion dollar project. So its processes that we need to focus onto improve the efficiency, and take advantage. These products i talked about, plastics and Refined Petroleum products, gasoline, diesel, they want to move by ram. Theres not sufficient truck capacity. Mayor, signs you want the trucks moving through your town . Theres not sufficient truck capacity to move those. Theres not pipeline capacity. They want to move by rail. In order for us to take advantage, we need to improve and modernize the processes for moving cargo across the bridge. Across the border. Thank you. And yeah, no. Please, i prefer at any time jump in. Lets make this the most interactive. This process that pat already explained, its crazy to have that. While at the same time in the same Border Crossing we are sharing in a maerlt of less than a second, were sharing the images that we are capturing on the not interest of equipments. We are using the technology and doing a great job doing joint inspections. Were sharing the images. We are both authorities doing the Risk Assessment at the same time, in microseconds. But at the same time you have this process. Its crazy to think about. I just if i can chime in here. This is important. What youre got is ma dernty, advancement on one side and reality on the ground. Thats really going on on the ground and preventing things from happening, the transactions from happening faster. So its a very important thing. Its a dichotomy we live in. Its contrast, and it happens in various areas. And sometimes on one the processing on one side of the border might move faster than the other. I know that thats even with unified cargo processing, still a remaining challenge. I think thats important to note. Most people dont understand theres several terms of art. You have to understand the magnitude. Generally if we go into government at post government life, theyll say we want you to help us create a regional initiative. Ill say well, youve actually maxed out on coordinated Border Management and cross border coordinated management. Words matter. Hopefully you caught that with my new york accent. All right . I said in the u. S. , this 47 agencies that have some degree of equity at the u. S. Border, so within the u. S. Someone would argue do you even have coordinated Border Management among your own u. S. Government agencies . That is distinctly different if you can accomplish that than having now cross border coordinated management to make sure that your port of entry thats open 8 00 to 5 00 on one side of the border, the other side is hopefully not open 4 00 to 12 00 at night. While you can move traffic one way, you cant move it both ways, and at least for north america, you could say thats your regional or trilateral arrangement. And thats extremely difficult and complex. Because if it wasnt complex, right after 9 11, a lot of thinking, i mean, i actually worked for some really intellectual commissioners. Those of you who know the resumes of john bonner and mr. Bersen. You know . Academics. Besides just like yale and road scholars i dont know how we ended up in footballs hall of fame. Im not sure if he slept or what he did, but the thinking is nirvana would be Perimeter Security. If you can harmonize all the various complex aspects between canada to the u. S. And mexico, you would create Perimeter Security and you would alleviate a lot of the challenges and congestions along the respective borders. But, you know, having said that, unfortunately thats not the case, and this panel is 21st century and were already one fifth of the way through 21st century, so if i could, im just going to give you two minutes which might, you know, allow mr. Ottensmeyer to tell you what theyre going in kansas city which shows you there are some activities that