By the numbers: How Santa Teresa Port of Entry emerged as leader in exports to Mexico
Wind turbine blades sit in a staging area at the TPI turbine lot in the Santa Teresa Intermodal industrial park, one of the companies in the the Border Industrial Association, Thursday February 2, 2017. [Josh Bachman / Las Cruces Sun-News]
LAS CRUCES - The port of entry at Santa Teresa, coming off a breakthrough year, has emerged as a leader in exports to Mexico and the world. According to figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2019 New Mexico led all U.S. states, at 31 percent, in export growth to the world. Last year, New Mexico also led all U.S. states, at 68 percent, in export growth to Mexico.
New Mexico exported about $2.39 billion to Mexico in 2019.
“We’ve always been looking at a sort of ‘chicken and the egg’ situation, about the numbers — well, now we have the numbers,” said U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM). “And, to the extent that we can assure we have the staffing and the infrastructure, I think that’s only going to grow, and grow our economy here.”
In 2019, the Santa Teresa Port of Entry moved up the list to become the fourth-largest exporting port on the U.S.-Mexico border. At more than $30 billion in overall trade, the port is up 17.4% from the previous year. Exports were up 21 percent, and imports increased by 14.5 percent.
“From 2010 to 2019, New Mexico led the nation in overall export growth at about 210 percent,” said Jerry Pacheco, president of the Border Industrial Association. “In terms of overall trade and trade with Mexico, it’s almost all Doña Ana County. Santa Teresa is driving almost the entire export growth for the state of New Mexico.”
The growth has been driven, in part, by public- and private-sector investment in the region, Pacheco asserts. The total value of investment started or completed by the public sector in the Santa Teresa industrial base in 2019 was $66,100,000. Meanwhile, private-sector investments nearly tripled that — with an investment of $180,850,000.
Doña Ana County, Pacheco says, is the key factor driving New Mexico to lead export growth to number one in the nation.
The monumental growth Santa Teresa experienced is particularly noteworthy because it came during a year plagued by uncertainty with regard to trade with Mexico. In May, President Donald Trump stated that he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all imported goods from Mexico beginning June 10 — a tax that would “gradually increase” until the flow of undocumented immigrants across the border stopped.
The announcement, which Trump made on his Twitter feed, said the tariffs would be in place “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.”
Those remarks sparked turmoil in international trade relations between the two countries, which had the potential of upending traffic at the Santa Teresa port. Additionally, uncertainties around the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement created jitters in trade between the two countries.
By the numbers
In 2019, the Santa Teresa Port of Entry saw total trade increase from $25,991,412,062 in 2018 to $30,504,770,356 in 2019 — an increase of 17.4%.
The Santa Teresa Port of Entry ranked fifth in overall trade among the 12 cities with international ports along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Only Laredo, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Otay Mesa, California; and Hidalgo, Texas, outperform Santa Teresa.
In terms of exports, the Santa Teresa port increased from $11,656,560,053 in 2018 to $14,098,528,777 in 2019 — an increase of 20.9%.
Santa Teresa ranked fourth in overall exports.
Santa Teresa is within about $2.8 billion of Otay Mesa, California, which ranks third in exports.
In terms of imports, the Santa Teresa Port of Entry increased from $14,334,852,009 in 2018 to $16,406,241,579 in 2019 — an increase of 14.5%.
Santa Teresa ranked sixth in overall imports.
The Las Cruces metropolitan area accounts for about 40 percent of the state’s exports. Albuquerque provides about 21 percent. Santa Fe and Farmington account for about 1 percent each, and the rest of the state provides about 37 percent.
In 2019, New Mexico exported about $2.39 billion in goods to Mexico.
“Exports to Mexico are more than half of the state’s exports, and Doña Ana County accounts for almost all of the exports to Mexico,” Jerry Pacheco, president of the Border Industrial Association, recently told the Albuquerque Journal. “So our companies are going gangbusters.”
Much of the export growth New Mexico experienced came from computer parts, which saw an increase of 128 percent from 2018 to 2019.
Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.
This story originally appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News on Feb. 24, 2020.
