LAREDO, Texas - Daniel Covarrubias is director of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at Texas A&M International University's A.R. Sanchez, Jr. School of Business.
Covarrubias recently penned a white paper with Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández, the former Mexican Ambassador to the United States and former managing director of the North American Development Bank. The white paper is titled "The BiNational Customs Agency - A Vision for U.S.-Mexico Joint Customs Operations."
The white paper argues for combining customs operations between the U.S. and Mexico, and potentially Canada too.
Here are the introductory remarks about the proposal in the white paper:
This paper proposes establishing a Binational Customs Agency between the United States and Mexico as a transformative solution to address growing challenges in cross-border trade and security operations. With bilateral trade surpassing $800 billion in 2023 and projected to exceed $1 trillion within the next decade, current customs frameworks struggle to balance efficient trade facilitation with evolving security imperatives.
The proposal builds upon successful precedents in bilateral cooperation, particularly the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) and North American Development Bank (NADBank), while addressing contemporary challenges, including the fentanyl crisis, weapons trafficking, and infrastructure constraints.
The proposed agency would operate through five specialized divisions: Joint Operations, Technology and Innovation, Revenue and Compliance, Professional Development, and Infrastructure Planning. This structure aims to bridge the institutional divide between U.S. Customs and Border Protection's security focus and Mexico's National Customs Agency's revenue emphasis while creating a unified platform for customs modernization.
The framework allows for initial operations through distinct national sections with clear sovereignty protections while enabling deeper integration as operational success builds trust between partners. With the upcoming 2026 USMCA review presenting a strategic opportunity for implementation, this paper argues that the Binational Customs Agency represents a pragmatic and necessary evolution in North American economic integration, potentially serving as a foundation for broader regional customs coordination, including Canada.
Via a recent Google Meets call, the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service interviewed Covarrubias about the idea he and Gutiérrez are pitching. Here is the video interview:
