Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 23 May 2017
Complex world of border trade: Cattle go north, meat south

CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN moves in either coun-
Associated Press try can have dire conse-
REYNOSA, Mexico (AP) — quences. As an example,
Waving arms and brandish- she recalled when the U.S.
ing a long electric prod, began requiring a new,
the ranch hands and truck more expensive visa for
drivers herd about 400 leg- Mexicans who crossed to
gy calves onto trucks as U.S. border cities.
the sun crests on the out- “It wiped out a socio-eco-
skirts of this border city. Af- nomic group that would
ter spending their first eight come over here on a daily
months on the ranches of basis for groceries, milk,
Gildardo Lopez Hinojosa, products, just their daily
the calves are about to goods,” she said. “Mexico
cross the border — bound not coming, Mexico not
for Texas and U.S. feed lots shopping, affects us.”
beyond. Border residents on both
On one of the three bridg- sides say that is already
es connecting Reynosa happening.
with Texas, they might A weaker Mexican peso
cross paths with the beef has been a principal fac-
and chicken shipments tor, but the unwelcoming
that Lopez imports from rhetoric and fear of the
the U.S. for his local chains In this April 27, 2017 photo, truck driver Jose Luis Mayorga herds calves onto a truck in Reynosa, sort of reception they will
of butcher shops and Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas. receive has been another.
fried chicken restaurants. Associated Press Several hundred miles up-
river from Reynosa, Lidia
ders a dozen times before nesses he employs about Gonzalez sat in the shade
a car comes off the assem- 400 people. of El Porvenir, Mexico’s
bly line in Michigan. Nearly 5 million U.S. jobs town square selling used
But U.S. border retailers depend on trade between clothing purchased in El
— downtown discount the two countries, accord- Paso.
stores and high-end out- ing to a study released last “It’s all second hand be-
let shopping and malls — fall by the non-partisan cause people can’t buy
also depend on Mexican Washington, D.C.-based new,” Gonzalez said. “It’s
shoppers, especially those Wilson Center Mexico Insti- OK for us, because from
whose jobs in Mexican tute. that we eat.”
border cities allow them to “The United States de- But she was anxious be-
shop in the U.S. pends on Mexico as much cause her supplier had cut
For nearly 25 years, Lopez as Mexico depends on the back her buying trips re-
has been sending cows United States,” Lopez said. cently. She said Mexican
to the U.S. and importing Monica Weisberg-Stewart, customs officials suddenly
beef to Mexico. across the border in McAl-
In this April 28, 2017 photo, Aimee Gomez, a recruiter for “ma- Three days a week he len, Texas, knows that as began hassling the buy-
quiladora” assembly plants in Reynosa, Mexico helps Juan Luis er about her purchases,
Alvarado de la Rosa fill out a job application in an industrial loads four to six trailers with well as anyone.
park, across the border from McAllen, Texas. his young cows and sends
Associated Press them across the bridge
connecting to Pharr, Texas.
He gets the best price for border where communities Once cleared by USDA
his calves in the U.S. and are enmeshed in a shared veterinarians there, buyers
it’s cheaper for him to im- economy that can be af- from elsewhere in Texas,
port U.S. chicken than ship fected by actions or words Arizona or even up toward
Mexican chicken from the in either country. the Canadian border pick
country’s interior. “It’s a lie to say that NAFTA up their cows. After that
Lopez has been selling didn’t work,” said Rafael initial sale, Lopez does not
calves and buying beef Garduno Rivera, an econ- know where they go.
across the border for about omist at the Center for In theory, some could
as long as the North Ameri- Economic Research and come back to him mixed in
can Free Trade Agreement Teaching in Aguascalien- among the 25 tons of beef This April 28, 2017 photo shows a sign that says “We’re hiring”
has been in effect. tes, who studies the agree- he imports from the U.S. outside a Panasonic “maquiladora” in an industrial park in
President Donald Trump ment’s impacts. “It worked every week for his butcher Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
has said the agreement and worked very well and shops. He buys from the Associated Press
that is the basis for much for both sides in various ar- big beef processors like
of the $500 billion annual eas. Like everything there IBP, National Beef and Su- Her family ran discount something Gonzalez attrib-
trade between the U.S. were losers and winners.” preme Beef, wherever he stores on the border for uted to the generally dete-
and Mexico needs to be Maquiladoras, as Mexi- finds the best price. more than 60 years, before riorating relations between
renegotiated or scrapped can assembly plants are Lopez’s calves create jobs making the business deci- the two countries.
entirely. To hear him tell it, known, get most of the in U.S. feed lots and slaugh- sion a couple years ago to Gonzalez has a visa that
NAFTA was “a catastrophic attention. They churn out terhouses and the cheap- close. Now Weisberg-Stew- allows her to cross, but the
trade deal for the United everything from flat-screen er U.S. chicken he buys al- art leases their properties last time she felt U.S. im-
States.” televisions and washing lows him to employ more to other businesses. migration agents were in-
The reality is far more com- machines to auto compo- Mexicans in his restaurants. The border economy is terrogating her more than
plicated, especially at the nents that might cross bor- Among his various busi- so interconnected that usual. q