ARIZONA & MEXICO

MEXICAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE STATE OF ARIZONA
By Arnold Maltz
Major trade corridors between Mexico and the U.S. enter the U.S. at, Nogales/Nogales, El Paso/
Ciudad Juarez, and Laredo/Nuevo Laredo.
Nogales is the largest port of entry in Arizona and accounts for approximately 7% of traffic by
value for the U.S./Mexico border.
Nogales connects Arizona State Route 189 to Mexico 15, which has moved fresh produce from
Sinaloa to U.S. markets for many years.
Upgrades and proper staffing at the Mariposa port of entry are key to maintaining Arizona’s
competitiveness as a port of entry for goods, particularly fresh produce, from Mexico.
The Arizona and Sonora trade corridor requires good rail connections in order to fully benefit from
possible container traffic into the revamped Port of Guaymas in Sonora.
Arizona has long considered its border with Mexico (and the state of Sonora in Mexico) as a potential
gateway to economic growth. As discussed in Chapter 11, there is a long history of border cooperation
with some cities, e.g. Nogales, even having the same name on both sides of the border.
Currently the north-south traffic flow between Mexico and Arizona is dwarfed by the flow of goods
coming from Asia via California and transported to the rest of the U.S. However as Mexico continues to
develop its manufacturing and commercial capabilities, Mexican infrastructure improvements could
increase Arizona’s commercial relationship and opportunities for shared economic growth with its
southern neighbor.
CURRENT STATE OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE
As discussed in Chapter 2, Arizona’s connection to Mexico for commercial purposes is centered in three
major ports of entry (POEs). By far the largest is the Nogales crossing, which consists of the Mariposa POE
for commercial and personal vehicles, and the DeConcini POE, which is used by north-south trains,
operated on the U. S. side by the Union Pacific Railroad and on the Mexican side by Ferromex (partly
owned by the Union Pacific).
Mexico has some 50,000 kilometers of Federal highways and approximately 80,000 kilometers of roads
maintained by the individual states. On a national basis, Mexico’s ranking on the 2014 World Bank’s
Logistics Performance Index (LPI) is 50th out of 160 countries. Interestingly, of the 6 components of the
LPI Mexico is strongest on “Timeliness” and weakest on Customs efficiency.
As the following map indicates, there are 3 major north-south arteries that connect (more or less directly)
to three major crossings between Mexico and the United States-Laredo/Nuevo Laredo, El Paso/Ciudad
Juarez, and Nogales, AZ/Nogales, Son. The recent upgrade/completion of the Mazatlán-Durango
highway link now completes a relatively high speed east-west link from the center of Mexico’s west coast
to Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo.
The most important linkage for Arizona is Mexico 15 that runs from Mazatlán in the state of Sinaloa
along the east coast of the Gulf of California through the Culiacan (Sinaloa), Ciudad Obregon, Guaymas
and Hermosillo to Nogales. Nogales has been a center of importation for fresh produce from Sinaloa for
many years, and Mexico 15 is the key connector for that trade.
35 • ARIZONA & MEXICO • ARIZONA TOWN HALL • APRIL 2016