Slowing down trade at the border.
The Texas Tribune reports: Abbott ends inspections that clogged commercial traffic at U.S.-Mexico border for more than a week. Gov. Greg Abbott reached a fourth and final deal — this one with Tamaulipas’ governor on Friday — to end state troopers’ increased inspections of commercial vehicles at international bridges that gridlocked commercial traffic throughout the Texas-Mexico border for more than a week. The latest deal should bring trade back to normal after Abbott-ordered enhanced inspections at key commercial bridges caused over a week of backups that left truckers waiting for hours and sometimes days to get loads of produce, auto parts and other goods into the U.S. I only learned about this slow down as it was being ended, but what we are clearly seeing here is what the Republican Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Sid Miller, called “simply political theater” in a letter to Abbott protesting the process. The Tribune piece notes both the stated goal and its results (emphasis mine): When he announced the initiative last week, Abbott said the goal was to stop illegal drugs and migrants from being smuggled into the state. As of Friday, t he Department of Public Safety had not reported any drugs seized or migrants apprehended as a result of the state inspections. But, there have been some other results, as CNN reports: Losses to fruit and vegetable producers are estimated to be more than $240 million, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas.
