IR/PS Students Contribute to Otay Mesa Port of Entry Project
Export Access group provides research
01/13/2009
Mira Mendoza,
The Otay Mesa Port of Entry (POE) is the largest commercial crossing on the California-Mexico border. Annually, more than 700,000 trucks carrying more than $20 billion in goods pass through the northbound border crossing. Despite its importance, the POE remains connected to California’s highway system by only a four- to six-lane local street where volumes reach over 55,000 vehicles daily. The current truck route into Mexico parallels the international border and is accessed using local streets in the City of San Diego. This international trade corridor consists of one lane used by loaded and empty trucks, and one lane reserved for U.S. Border Patrol, emergency access, and disabled vehicles. Forecasts suggest that both passenger and commercial vehicle crossings will more than double for all POEs along the California and Baja California border by 2020. Addressing truck access to the busiest commercial border crossing along the California-Mexico border is vital to the San Diego region and California’s economic competitiveness.
Several months ago, Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Dianne Feinstein requested a presidential permit for the proposed Otay Mesa East Port of Entry in San Diego. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has signed the presidential permit, and shortly it will become fully effective and the next steps to develop the new port will go forward. The new port of entry will be developed two miles east of the current one. This new port of entry offers to alleviate congestion and accommodate future trade and growth, while maintaining the highest level of security. It is estimated that the economic impacts to California from the new port of entry will exceed $31 billion over the first ten years of operation, with electronics, machinery, and manufacturing industries receiving the largest benefit.
Export Access International, an IR/PS professional development student group, contributed significantly to the research on the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. The team led by Ryan Merrill, '08 deserves credit for an excellent data analysis on this project. According to Ryan, “the Otay Mesa project served to highlight only one of many efforts our students make each year to bring econometric analysis to bear on pressing issues of public policy”.
