There’s another snarl in the global supply chain, this time coming from the Mexico-U.S. border in Texas, where state leaders are requiring that commercial vehicles undergo extra inspections, slowing the flow of goods by hours or sometimes days.
About a week ago, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered state police to question drivers coming from Mexico, even after those trucks made it through normal U.S. Customs and Border Patrol inspection points. That has resulted in backups near border crossings, while truck drivers in Mexico have halted traffic heading north across the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge to protest Abbott’s moves, The Texas Tribune writes.
While Abbott has since removed some inspection points following agreements with officials in Mexico, other sites continue to target trucks for extra scrutiny. The wait time for commercial vehicles at the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, Texas, on the afternoon of April 14 was 270 minutes, up from a normal wait time of 46 minutes, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.
Abbott called for the extra inspections after President Joe Biden’s administration said it was eliminating some of the COVID-related rules regarding migrants.
Texas shares more than 1,000 miles of border with Mexico, and the slowdowns and closures are impacting deliveries of produce, auto parts and a range of other products used on both sides of the border.
