A group of local business leaders will travel to Mexico City to meet with Mexican federal government officials and agencies to delegate on behalf of the region. This is the 12th annual binational trip to Mexico City that is organized by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“I think this is one of the most important trips we have ever had,” said Jerry Sanders President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce to La Prensa San Diego. “We are going to meet with public officers from the federal government to talk about the border crossings, and about what we think is important to keep the trade going between the two countries.”

The trip is going to be from March 26 to 29. More than 100 people are part of the travelling group, including Tijuana’s Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, general consul of the United States Consulate in Tijuana William Ostick, among other local business leaders and public officials.

“One of our goals of this trip to Mexico City is to take a united and strong front that says that we support NAFTA, trade, and the relation in general between the United States and Mexico,” said San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Vice President Paola Avila to La Prensa San Diego. “We depend on the US-Mexico relations, and we need to strengthen it.”

The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is going to be one of the main dialogues with federal public officials in Mexico, because the local group wants to highlight the positive benefits that this agreement has on the Cali-Baja region.

“NAFTA is a benefit for everyone in the country, but there are people in Mexico like in the United States that don’t believe or support it,” Avila said. “We want to take data and examples of the NAFTA’s benefits we see on the region.”

Besides the promotion of an economic and diplomatic relationship between both countries, the group wants to promote specific projects during their stay in Mexico’s capital.

One of the projects to be promoted is the Otay Mesa II Port of Entry, a new port of entry that wants to provide fast and predictable crossings via tolled approach roads on both directions.

“The Otay Mesa II Port of Entry project is in a critical point with the new administration,” Avila said. “We still need some properties on both sides of the border, but because we are going to Mexico we will ask for the properties missing for the project on the Mexican side.”

Another project to be promoted while in Mexico City is PedWest, a new pedestrian border crossing building to be located on the West side of the existing San Ysidro Port of Entry that will operate with both directions.

“On the PedWest project we are missing the entrance to Mexico, that’s something we need to discuss with the Mexican federal authorities,” Avila said. “We want to ask for funding and personnel to operate the entrance to Mexico from the United States in PedWest.”

So far, there are meetings scheduled with Paulo Carreno King, Director of ProMexico, the Mexican government institution in charge of strengthening Mexico’s participation in the international economy; with Ricardo Trevino Chapa, Federal Administrator of Customs; among others.