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P a s o

BusinessFrontier
FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS

EL PASO BRANCH

ISSUE 4 • 2004

I

Framing the Future:
Tomorrow’s
Border Economy
A Dallas Fed
conference examines
how recent global
economic trends,
trade patterns and
post-9/11 security
issues have reshaped
the U.S.– Mexico
border.

n early December about 175 people gathered in El
Paso for a conference on U.S.–Mexico border issues,
hosted by the El Paso and San Antonio branches of the
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in cooperation with the
University of Texas at Brownsville. The purpose of the
conference, “Framing the Future: Tomorrow’s Border
Economy,” was to explore how recent global economic
trends, trade patterns and post-9/11 security issues
have reshaped the U.S.–Mexico border.
The conference did not set out to predict the future
of the border, but rather sought to examine how the
border economy has been changed and repositioned in
recent years by a series of sweeping events. Trade
stands out among the changes, beginning with the
post-World War II establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the opening of
Mexico in the 1980s and finally implementation of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But
there have also been extensive cyclical and structural
changes in global manufacturing, changes that have
brought boom and bust to the border’s most powerful
economic engine, the maquiladora industry. Most recently, post-9/11 security issues have slowed the crossborder movement of goods and people, threatening to
stop or reverse the economic integration enjoyed on
the border in recent decades.
To frame the future, we need perspective on where
we have been and where we are today. Knowing
where we are today can be difficult when the landscape beneath your feet is constantly changing. We are
only now beginning to sort out, separate and understand how these global trends affect the United States,
Mexico and the border between them.
Speakers at this conference were charged with providing insights into where the border stands today and

This publication was digitized and made available by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Historical Library (FedHistory@dal.frb.org)

how trade, manufacturing and security issues will
influence our future. (See page 3 for a list of
speakers.) As indicated by the summary of their
remarks below, the presenters were highly successful in bringing new perspectives on often
complex and interwoven issues.

PERSPECTIVE ON TRADE
Grant Aldonas, undersecretary for international trade administration, U.S. Department of
Commerce, offered a strong message about the
power of international trade, its ability to raise the
prospects for growth
and how it drives participants toward their
comparative advantage.
The microeconomic advantages of trade’s ability to drive lower prices
and deliver higher quality for consumers are too
often missed in trade debates, as is trade’s abilAldonas
ity to create new, highly
focused options for investors at home and abroad.
Aldonas discussed manufacturing’s recent
struggles over the last recession (a 6 percent drop
in industrial output versus 0.5 percent for gross
domestic product) and said the adjustment had
been structural as much as cyclical. First, the success of trade policy, from GATT to NAFTA, has
reduced U.S. tariffs from 60 percent at the end of
World War II to a trade-weighted average of 2 percent today. Second, recent advances in telecommunications, computing and transportation mean
that any company that can operate a global supply chain must operate one. This has allowed much
more competitive pressure into U.S. markets.
Finally, the end of the Cold War allowed integration of Eastern Bloc economies into the West, but
for a period of time it brought excess capacity,
especially in heavy industry.
Growth in trade creates special opportunities
for the border, often making it the focus of new
investment and economic growth. Aldonas said
that NAFTA was a signal event because it opened
supply lines across the U.S.–Mexico border, turning border cities into platforms for global competition. If there has been an Achilles’ heel in the
process, it is that the physical infrastructure needed
to facilitate cross-border trade has failed to match
rapidly growing needs. Although organizations
such as the U.S.–Mexico Partnership for Prosperity have been effective in bringing the need for
infrastructure to the attention of both governments, the border cities themselves can and should

2

do more to bring these constraints on trade to the
forefront.

CURRENT STATE OF BORDER INTEGRATION
The first panel assessed the current economic
state of the U.S.–Mexico border, particularly looking for evidence of economic integration. Senior
economist Keith Phillips of the Dallas Fed’s San
Antonio Branch described recent economic developments in Texas border cities and the cities’
near-term prospects for growth. He emphasized
that Texas border cities differ from other Texas
cities; they are subject to more factors that can
affect their growth, such as U.S. industrial activity,
the course of the Mexican economy and the dollar–peso exchange rate. The border’s history is a
combination of good and bad news, of strong job
growth often accompanied by high unemployment rates and poor per capita income growth. It
seems to adapt quickly to changes in trade flows
or regulatory structure.
Using an analysis of trends in the recent performance of border city economies, Phillips concluded that economic
expansion in El Paso,
Laredo, Brownsville and
McAllen is correlated to
Mexico’s economy, but
that of the four cities El
Paso is the more stable,
slower growing and most
closely tied to Texas and
the U.S. economy. El
Paso’s links to the United
Phillips
States are primarily
through industrial production, especially the very
large concentration of maquiladoras in neighboring Ciudad Juárez. Laredo, Brownsville and
McAllen have been faster growing and more dynamic in recent years, as well as more closely tied
to Mexico and the exchange rate. The strong peso
has helped retail shopping in Laredo and McAllen.
Based on expected performance of the chief
drivers of the Texas–Mexico border region—the
U.S. and Mexican economies, industrial output and
the exchange rate—Phillips predicted solid shortrun performance along the entire border. The
longer run picture will depend on how well these
cities address such issues as education, water,
transportation, immigration and border security.
Howard Shatz, research fellow at the Public
Policy Institute of California, described progress in
economic integration along the California–Mexico
border. California shares only 145 miles of the
2,000-mile U.S.–Mexico border, a circumstance that
concentrates 5.4 million people, a quarter of the

Business Frontier

Framing the Future: Tomorrow’s Border Economy
December 3, 2004, El Paso, Texas
Speakers
Opening Address:
Grant Aldonas, Undersecretary for International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

Panel I: Recent Economic Trends Along the U.S.–Mexico Border
Alejandro Díaz-Bautista, Professor of Economics, Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Keith R. Phillips, Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, San Antonio Branch
Howard J. Shatz, Research Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California

Panel II: Convergence/Divergence Along the North American Borders: Are We There Yet?
Serge Coulombe, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa
James B. Gerber, Professor of Economics, San Diego State University
Javier Sánchez-Reaza, Economist, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

Keynote Address:
Kristin J. Forbes, President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Washington, D.C.

Panel III: The Border After 9/11
James R. Giermanski, Chairman, Department of International Business, Belmont Abbey College
Garrick Taylor, Director of Policy Development, Border Trade Alliance
P. T. Wright, Jr., Executive Director, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, US - VISIT

Panel IV: Perspectives on the Future of the Border
Jorge Bustamante, Professor of Sociology, University of Notre Dame
John H. Christman, Director of Maquiladora Industry Services, Global Insight, Inc.
Manuel Suárez-Mier, Chief Economist, Latin America, Bank of America

border’s truck traffic to support trade and a third
of its pedestrian traffic into a compact region. In
1999, Mexico displaced Japan as the top destination of California exports, and joint production in
electrical and nonelectrical machinery dominates
this trade. However, the short border and the distance to the state’s high-tech center in the San
Francisco Bay area have sometimes presented barriers in developing fully
integrated cross-border
trade in these industries.
Integration on the
California border is apparent in shared infrastructure—electrical generators near Mexicali,
wastewater treatment
facilities in Tijuana and
proposed liquefied natShatz
ural gas (LNG) receiving stations in Baja
California. In fact, the major challenges to integration lie in the need for more common transporta-

Issue 4 • 2004

tion infrastructure and forward movement of proposed energy and wastewater facilities.
Shatz concluded that barring major policy
changes, further regional integration will continue
to be driven by history, geography and trade. Four
million California residents born in Mexico, and
millions of others of Mexican heritage, will have a
strong interest in furthering this integration.
Alejandro Díaz-Bautista, professor of economics
at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, described recent trends in the northern border states of Mexico, comparing them both to U.S. border states and
to the national norm in Mexico. He characterized
northern Mexico as heterogeneous and complex,
cut off from the social and political life in the center of the country and exhibiting advanced economic development. The northern Mexico economy
is differentiated today by its focus on manufacturing,
specialization of work and corresponding rapid
technological advancement. The region is highly
urbanized, with 90 percent of the population in
the urban twin cities, dominated in number by
Ciudad Juárez–El Paso and Tijuana–San Diego.

3

Trends in employment, gross domestic
product, exports and
foreign direct investment all point strongly
to the importance of
the maquiladora in the
northern Mexico economy, driven largely by
low labor costs and a
location near the U.S.
Díaz-Bautista
market. Between 1990
and 2000, Mexican exports to the United States
quadrupled, with NAFTA, global trends in offshore manufacturing and exchange rates all playing a role. Although Díaz-Bautista sees some signs
of integration of the energy network in gas interconnections, electric power and proposed LNG
terminals, manufacturing remains the primary
lever for integration (and growing economic synchronization) along the U.S.–Mexico border.

TRADE, GEOGRAPHY AND INCOME
The second panel looked at the power of
trade to reshape economic geography and industrial location. Serge Coulombe, an economics professor at the University of Ottawa, discussed the
impact of trade integration between the United
States and Canada on Canada’s industrial mix. The
effect of NAFTA on Canada (which Coulombe
described as essentially a border economy) was
dramatic, with the share of trade in the Canadian
economy rising from 51
percent to 86 percent
between 1990 and 2000.
This increase in trade
was virtually all with the
United States, indicating significant economic
integration between the
two nations. A major debate in Canada centered on whether the
Coulombe
NAFTA-driven integration would make the
economy more specialized—a peripheral region
of the United States, concentrated in forestry and
other primary products—or whether it would
favor industrial diversification. The question had
implications for regional business cycles and the
extent of industrial dislocation occurring under
NAFTA.
Competing economic theories make the question empirical, and Coulombe and a co-author
brought to bear data on exports and imports across
290 industries in 10 Canadian provinces from 1980

4

to 2000. The main result, robust to several methodologies, favored increased industrial diversification as trade grew between the United States and
Canada. There was some indication of short-run
specialization on impact with the opening of
trade, but long-run diversification moves quickly,
with half the impact of diversification complete
within 2.5 years.
The explanation of this result probably depends on backward and forward linkages. After
tariff reduction, specialization may occur in one
product, and backward linkages attract labor with
specific skills to the region. This, in turn, attracts
other industries that can use similar skills, which
results in diversification. Or, instead of labor, this
diversification can be built on linkages to primary
or intermediate materials.
Javier Sánchez-Reaza, an economist at the
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
in Mexico City, related how trade has altered the
economic landscape of Mexico. He described the
pre-1985 period of a closed Mexican economy,
the initial opening of Mexico’s economy when it
joined GATT in 1985,
and the radical opening
to trade and foreign
investment forced by
NAFTA. The pre-1985
period, with the economy closed, naturally
placed Mexico City and
central Mexico at the
heart of the country’s
economy. After GATT,
and especially after
Sánchez-Reaza
NAFTA, the draw of the
world’s largest economy moved the locus of trade,
foreign direct investment and growth to the northern Mexican states. This shift to the north, however, disrupted a long period of income convergence among the Mexican states, with an inverse
relationship between per capita GDP and average
annual growth rates. GATT and NAFTA reversed
this trend, with the affluent northern states now
outgrowing the rest of the country.
Sánchez-Reaza also looked at the performance
of Mexico’s industrial regions before and after
NAFTA. The old Mexico City industrial belt has
seen its share of Mexico’s manufacturing decline,
while Guadalajara and Monterrey have held their
share of industry. The border states, especially
Chihuahua and Baja California, have experienced
dramatic gains.
James B. Gerber, an economics professor and
director of the Center for Latin American Studies
at San Diego State University, addressed the ques-

Business Frontier

tion of income convergence along the U.S.–
Mexico border. He examined the U.S. counties
and Mexican municipios that touch the U.S.–
Mexico border for signs of convergence since
1970. The expectation of income convergence—
the opportunity for the poor to catch up with the
rich—is among the fundamental rationales for all
of Mexico’s reforms since the 1980s, including
NAFTA. Convergence is expected with the freer
movement of goods, technology transfer across
borders and the merging of tastes and preferences.
The measure Gerber
uses to compare border
convergence is gross
product per capita. Data
for the comparison of
U.S. counties to Mexican municipios are less
than ideal and require a
number of assumptions.
Gerber
Once constructed, the
data are deflated over time using indexes based
on purchasing power parity. The measure chosen
does not allow for tax differences, tell us anything
about income distribution or allow for factor payment paid outside the country or municipio.
However, given the qualifications, the results
show strong indications that the poorest counties/municipios are catching up, converging with
the rich ones at a rate of about 1 percent per year.
If specific allowance is made for differences in
educational levels (about 80 percent of U.S. workers on the border have a high school degree,
while only 30 percent of Mexican workers have
the equivalent), then the rate of convergence doubles to about 2 percent per year. Across time periods, strong convergence between the United
States and Mexico is particularly notable after
NAFTA.

MANUFACTURING
Kristin Forbes, a member of the President’s
Council of Economic Advisers, began with a list of
famous pairs, like Ben and Jerry or Sam and
Frodo, making the point that her talk would be
about another close-knit pair: U.S. manufacturing
and the maquiladora industry. Knowing the status
of U.S. manufacturing, you can be sure that the
border maquiladoras are not far away.
The 2001 U.S. recession was mild, but the
economy was slow to recover. Manufacturing sustained a much larger and harder recession, and
industrial recovery began only in the fall of 2003,
two years after the recession ended. Manufactur-

Issue 4 • 2004

ing employment fell by 2.7 million between
February 2001 and February 2004, reaching the
lowest level since 1950. Why was the recession so
long and different for manufacturing? Forbes
blamed the severity on unusual weakness in business investment and exports.
Investment growth was unusually rapid in the
late 1990s, and overspending prevented a quick
bounce-back after the recession ended. The wait
for recovery was stretched out even further by
uncertainty generated by the accounting scandals,
9/11 and the Iraq War. Exports normally support
growth in recession, but this time they were a
drag on growth, partly due to slow growth among
our trading partners. Amplifying job loss was the
very strong growth in manufacturing productivity,
which has acted to depress industrial job growth
since the 1950s. As economy-wide productivity
accelerated in recent years, manufacturing productivity growth accelerated along with it, again
reducing the need for industrial workers. Forbes
noted that productivity growth is also occurring in
areas like China, where despite the well-publicized growth in manufacturing, jobs in the sector
have declined by millions.
Forbes said that China’s role in the current
downturn is often overstated. Trade with China is
exaggerated in the public mind because it is in
highly visible products like apparel, sporting
goods and toys. Although U.S. trade with China
has sharply accelerated in recent years, the U.S.
share of trade with Asian rim countries has been
fixed. This suggests that China is stealing jobs
from Taiwan and Vietnam, not from the United
States. Further, most of the sectors that have sustained large job losses recently are not ones that
compete head-to-head with China. The most
important exception to
this, certainly from the
perspective of the border, is textiles and apparel, a sector of the
maquiladora industry
that has seen heavy
losses in recent years.
The good news is
that U.S. manufacturing
is now rapidly recoverForbes
ing, adding 86,000 new
jobs since February 2004. Output is up 6 percent
from the trough. Business investment and exports
are now contributing strongly to the recovery. The
key factor in the recovery has been strong expansion in the U.S. economy and among U.S. trading
partners. Forbes suggested a number of specific
proposals to make the United States a more attrac-

5

tive place for both domestic and foreign companies. These proposals include tort reform, permanent tax relief, affordable health care, and an
affordable and predictable energy supply.
Forbes noted that the return to robust health
in U.S. manufacturing suggests the U.S. industry/maquiladora pair is likely to come to a good
end—less like Thelma and Louise, more like
Batman and Robin.

BORDER SECURITY AFTER 9/11
The events of September 11 brought a new era
to the border. Integration of the U.S. and Mexican
economies was to be built on the easy flow of
goods, services and people across the border. The
threat of terrorism initially slowed this traffic dramatically in the fall of 2001 and the winter that followed. Commerce on the border has proven
resilient in the face of new security programs, but
the steeper trade-off between commerce and
security was the focus of the third panel.
Two speakers addressed the US-VISIT program: P. T. Wright, executive director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, US-VISIT, and
Garrick Taylor, director
of policy development
for the Border Trade Alliance. Taylor described
the history of US-VISIT
(United States Visitor
and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology), a
program that has generTaylor
ated fear, consternation
and uncertainty at all points on the border. US VISIT will provide an integrated entry and exit
control system for nonimmigrant visitors to the
United States, entailing photo and biometric screening. The initial reaction to these proposals from
cities that are major land ports was vehement opposition, based on visions of border cities turned
into parking lots and resulting lost retail sales.
Although we now tend to see US-VISIT from
a post-9/11 perspective, the enhanced entry and
exit program was mandated by legislation in 1996
and then delayed by further legislation in 2000.
The 2000 legislation (the Data Management Improvement Act) set the deadlines now in force:
December 31, 2003, for air and seaports; December 31, 2004, for the 50 largest land crossings; and
December 31, 2005, for all 317 points of crossing.
The effect of 9/11 was to slowly bring border
cities to the realization that an exit and entry control system was inevitable and that it was in their
best interest to get on board and help develop it.

6

Wright carefully laid out where the program
currently stood. Deadlines for 2004 were being
met, with the 50 largest land crossings on schedule for implementation by year-end. However,
through 2005, the typical border crosser (with
laser visa and a limited
stay in the United States)
will not be affected.
Only the 3 percent of
visitors requiring secondary screening, most
applying for visits to
the U.S. interior, will
require a photo and
fingerprinting. Taylor
Wright
pointed out, however,
that it remains a homeland security objective to
ultimately have biometric screening of all visitors,
and here the schedule remains unknown.
An exit program has never existed in the
United States, and return to the home country has
primarily been based on an honor system. Exit
programs are now being tested at five airports,
and a system is being developed for land crossings. Current proposals are for radio frequency or
proximity readers, similar to those used on toll
roads to read electronic tags and charge the
appropriate owner of the passing auto. One proposal, for example, is for the reader to take data
from a chip somehow attached to the existing
laser visa. It is still unclear how this might work
effectively with a van carrying two or more families back from vacation in San Antonio, for example. Wright promised a 21st century solution for
the problem that will avoid kick-out lanes and
extensive traffic jams.
The third speaker on security issues was James
R. Giermanski, professor and chairman of the department of international business at Belmont Abbey College. Giermanski expressed significant
doubts about the efficacy of truck security programs along the southern border. Much of his evidence came from a study he co-authored with
U.S. Customs broker
Daniel B. Hastings, Jr.
Giermanski cited Customs-Trade Partnership
Against Terrorism (CTPAT), a voluntary program to accelerate
screening of trusted carriers, where trust is
earned by compliance
with rigid rules on
Giermanski
cargo handling and con-

Business Frontier

trolled movement of goods. Giermanski’s concern
was less with C-TPAT than with its limited coverage: Only 350 trucking firms and 80 Mexican manufacturers (of 10,000) were covered as of June
2004.
The rest of the transportation system—including the vast majority of trucks moving north—is
outside rigid controls. At origin, the Mexican driver may not know what is in his trailer, especially
if it is sealed, and little is likely to be known about
the manufacturer who sealed the trailer. The driver should go directly to a drop lot on the border.
Did he do so? How secure is the lot? What do we
know about the drayage company and customs
broker that handled and moved the cargo across
the border?
Giermanski offered a number of suggestions
to improve the system. They include smart containers; free trade zones (recintos fiscalizados),
where the United States gains some control of the
shipment in Mexico; inland cargo release; and
improved drayage and drop lot security. He
emphasized a need for real intelligence in the customs program to better understand terrorist
threats.

PERSPECTIVE ON THE BORDER’S FUTURE
The final panel looked to the future by examining key aspects of the U.S.– Mexico border
economy. John Christman, director of Maquiladora Industry Services at Global Insight, Inc.,
offered an overview of the maquiladora industry’s
outlook. Maquiladoras continue to play a lead role
in the evolution and development of the border
region, with over 60 percent of the industry situated in Mexican border cities and over 80 percent
in the six northern states of Mexico.
Christman described the recent turnaround in
maquiladora activity, with the first three quarters
of 2004 bringing 87,700 new jobs, 22 new plants,
a 7.7 percent increase in output and a 22.5 percent increase in direct foreign investment. The
timing and speed of the return owes much to improvement in U.S. industrial activity, as described
earlier by Kristin Forbes.
Christman also spoke to the near-term environment in Mexico for maquiladora activity. He
sees prospects for GDP growth near 4 percent in
2004 but slowing in 2005–06. Monetary discipline
and record foreign exchange reserves ($58 billion)
promise economic stability. High oil prices are
bringing continued good revenues and foreign
exchange earnings, and Mexico maintains a solid
country-risk rating. On the negative side are
stalled reforms in energy, labor and taxes and
large gaps in infrastructure, education and invest-

Issue 4 • 2004

ment. The current administration seems incapable of providing
leadership in reform,
and none of the current
leading presidential candidates appears to know
much about maquiladoras or the border.
The first of the
new
free trade zones
Christman
has now been approved in San Luis Potosí. The key competitive sectors
for the maquiladoras are auto parts, aerospace,
electronics, software, medical instruments and
metal mechanics. The emerging maquiladora is
increasingly high-tech, high-complexity and capital-intensive and has a business model that incorporates its own engineering and research and
development. Christman cited an ongoing need to
streamline Mexico’s rules and regulations governing the industry.
Manuel Suárez-Mier, chief Latin American
economist for Bank of America, discussed political and economic issues in Mexico that are important to the border. He pointed out that at one time
Washington and Mexico City ignored the border
(usually a good thing, he added), but 9/11 has
made the border an issue that will not go away in
either capital.
Suárez-Mier described a political atmosphere
in Mexico of strong anti-U.S. feeling because of
the Iraq invasion. But he also criticized the Fox
administration’s management of public opinion.
He felt that Mexico
squandered the goodwill and opportunity
offered by the initial
meeting four years ago
of Presidents Fox and
Bush in León, Guanajuato. The political incentives for the United
States to court Mexico
are still in place, given
Suárez-Mier
the growing political
clout of the large Mexican–American population, but Mexico has been
unable to capitalize on this advantage.
Mexico has also been unable to move forward
on immigration. Officials have failed to see security issues as a new opportunity to rationalize the
current unhealthy system of millions of illegal
immigrants in the United States. Security on the
southern border also could be used as a lever to
build on other policy areas important to Mexico.

7

Suárez-Mier described a revised agenda for
Mexico that seems improbable today but could be
possible with the right leadership: immigration
reform, large investments in infrastructure, the
stalled tax and energy reforms, antitrust legislation
and a customs union with the United States.
Unfortunately, Mexico has passed no significant
reforms since NAFTA, and, like Christman, SuárezMier is not optimistic that coming elections will
bring farsighted leadership.
Finally, Jorge Bustamante, professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame, discussed
the opportunities and problems the border faces.
While the border is a
dividing line between
two countries, great contrasts in economic wellbeing are evident on the
U.S. side; San Diego
County in California and
Zapata County in Texas
are high and low watermarks for U.S. per capita income, for example. Except for San
Diego, the U.S. side of
theBustamante
border is poor by U.S. standards, while northern Mexico is above average for Mexico by nearly
every development indicator. Often you can see in
the border region what you choose to see. Two
years ago Time magazine called the border area
the new MexAmerica, a place with a vibrant and
brilliant future; Time recently returned to the border with a pessimistic focus on crime, immigration
and poverty.
Bustamante called the border the place where
the United States joins Latin America, and its
progress will be a measure of how well America
globalizes. He cited the growing interdependence
of twin border cities such as El Paso and Ciudad
Juárez. This will be the front line of globalization,
and the question is how well both countries will
deal with the problems and opportunities—two
cultures, two languages, two dominant religions
and a common environment to protect.
Bustamante said that while we think about the
border as the proximity of two nations, it can also
be approached in terms of regions. He described
a new and emerging triangle of activity marked by
Monterrey, San Antonio and Houston evolving
from a new pattern of cross-border trade. He said
the success of South Texas cities such as Laredo
and Brownsville is built partly on their location at
the center of this new subregion.
All is not rosy, however, as national sovereignty has become a major issue since 9/11.
However, Bustamante thinks that the advantages

of cultural enrichment and economic integration
will eventually wear these security issues down to
secondary importance. The border has always
been fluid and quick to adjust. Despite 9/11, we
continue to see in San Diego–Tijuana and El
Paso–Juárez, for example, the most intensive pace
of international interaction anywhere in the world.
— Robert W. Gilmer
Keith Phillips
Jesus Cañas
Roberto Coronado

Gilmer is a vice president at the Federal Reserve
Bank of Dallas. Phillips is a senior economist at the
San Antonio Branch and Cañas and Coronado
are assistant economists at the El Paso Branch of the
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

New Web Site for NOBE-REF
• Up-to-date research on border economic issues
• Online library • Member locator • Research papers
• Conference schedule • Bilingual site
• Links to statistical information

www.nobe-ref.org

E l

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BusinessFrontier
ISSUE 4 • 2004
Business Frontier is published by the El Paso Branch of the
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