CC PORT MAKES VALLEY INROADS, WHERE'S PORT OF B'VILLE?

By ELIZABETH FINDELL

The Monitor 
Port of Corpus Christi officials looked at the infrastructure and trucks of the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge Friday morning and saw some things they knew well.
“If you picture the shipping channel, it’s the same thing,” port Commissioner Richard Valls said as the group surveyed an aerial photo of truck inspection lines from the bridge’s conference room.
The eight Corpus Christi officials went on a tour of the bridge during the meeting, discussing petroleum movements between both ports of entry and how oil and gas could best flow northbound and southbound.
Juan Guerra, Pharr’s chief financial officer, who oversees the bridge, said he expected fracking south of Reynosa to increase those northbound shipments. Guerra outlined Pharr’s efforts to buy into the Donna-Rio Bravo bridge to create a two-bridge system and plans to speed traffic over its own infrastructure.
The port officials were in town to sign a memorandum of understanding indicating cooperation with the bridge — a symbolic one, as the original MOU has already been signed and executed in Corpus.
Pharr city leaders first approved the basics of the agreement in November. It outlines a cooperative agreement between the bridge and the sea port to partner on marketing, data exchange, market studies, training, technology, environmental management and modernization improvements.
It calls its goal to increase traffic for both entities by “promoting the efficient logistical land and sea port route between the Pharr Bridge and the Port of Corpus Christi Authority.”
Leaders of both entities said Friday that the friendship was more than symbolic.
“We’re just so thrilled to be able to say ‘Look, we want to be part of the interchange of information, whether it has to do with the environment, whether it has to do with training, whether it has to do with statistics, we can help each other. Because this land-sea route is critical to both of us,” said port Commissioner Barbara Canales.
Port Executive Director John LaRue said Corpus Christi was trying to trying to extend marketing for its port in Mexico and hoped to partner with Pharr on that effort.
For Pharr, the agreement is another outreach effort for a city which has taken numerous steps to position itself competitively in the region.
The city has been developing cold storage areas near the bridge to provide a home base for produce importers. With the Donna deal in the works, the city plans to begin aggressive lobbying to convince federal officials to open that bridge for commercial inspections — instead of competitor Anzalduas, which is owned by McAllen, Mission and Hidalgo and is expected to have commercial truck traffic next year.
Guerra called the deal with Corpus one that would benefit the region as a whole, but also acknowledged its role in Pharr’s continued efforts to lobby for control of Valley truck traffic.
“We’re already kind of the (local) leaders in international trade,” he said. “The signing of today’s MOU only serves to strengthen that, because with this MOU we’ll be sharing intelligence, marketing efforts and promotions.