More than $1.1 billion in goods crosses the bridges between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo every single day. Yesterday, I had the chance to tell that story to a global audience.
Yesterday, I joined the 29th Beyond Borders Breakfast Debate, hosted by the Border Focal Point Network and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) on cross-border cooperation around the world: Cascadia, the US-Mexico border, South America's triple frontier, Africa, and Central Asia.
My message from Laredo: borders can be living laboratories. The U.S.-Mexico border built the deepest economic integration in the Americas without a Single Market, a Schengen, or a common currency.
With the 2026 USMCA review underway, the choice is one rulebook or three. My case: modernize the framework through institutions (a Binational Customs Agency, the North American Industrial Coordination Council, and the North American Digital Coordination Initiative). Don't fragment it.
Europe built institutions first and integrated inside them. North America integrated first, and its institutions are catching up.
Each border has something to teach the other. That contrast was the whole point of the conversation.
Thank you to Nathalie Verschelde, Ricardo Ferreira, Andrew Lansley, and the BFPN team for the invitation, and to my fellow panelists Laurie Trautman, José María Cruz, Kehinde Bolaji, and Sergei Golunoy.
The recording will be on the Border Focal Point Network YouTube channel.
Editor’s Note: The above commentary was penned by Dr. Daniel Covarrubias, director of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at the A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business at Texas A&M International University. His research focuses on cross-border trade, logistics, and the convergence of exponential technologies with North American economic integration. The commentary first appeared on the author’s social media pages.
Editor’s Note: The Border Focal Point Network is the European Commission’s platform for strengthening cooperation in border regions. It brings together public authorities, experts, civil society, and young people to exchange good practices, overcome cross-border obstacles, and improve services in EU border regions.
Editor’s Note: The mission of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) is to support the economic and social development of all regions of the European Union. The group is the EU’s main investment policy, constituting almost a third of the total budget for the period 2021-2027.
