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The NASCO Report  
Volume III, Issue 13 
July 15, 2011

 
The NASCO Report appears semimonthly tracking and explaining trends and developments in this complex and dynamic tri-national transportation corridor. The report aims to provide our members, subscribers and partners with high-quality news and analysis from a corridor perspective.

 

In This Issue
US, MEXICO END DISPUTE OVER CROSS-BORDER TRUCKING
PLANS ARISE TO URGE FREIGHT USE OF NATURAL GAS
ONTARIO LEADS CANADA IN GROWTH, JOB CREATION
CHICAGO'S TOP INTERMODAL LANDLORD ON RAIL FUTURE
NASCO HIGHLIGHTS TRANSHUB ONTARIO
LOGISTICS & MANUFACTURING SYMPOSIUM IN LAREDO

US, MEXICO END DISPUTE OVER CROSS-BORDER TRUCKING ISSUE

 
 Mexico US Trucking Dispute Pic
MEXICO CITY -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ended a nearly two-decade dispute with Mexico over bilateral, long-haul, cross-border freight trucking rights on July 6.

 

LaHood signed a definitive accord to re-open access to the U.S. for certified Mexican trucks and truckers with his Mexican counterpart Dionisio Arturo P�rez-J�come Friscione.

 

The ceremony in Mexico City began a detailed process to permanently establish bilateral cross-border trucking rights that the U.S. and Mexico had mutually agreed to originally in the Jan. 1, 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

 

Bilateral U.S.-Mexico trade hit $390 billion in 2010, up 24% from the recession-wracked 2009 year, and the best single-year gain since the NAFTA accord began in 1994. Mexico is the U.S.' No. 3 trade partner behind Canada and China.

 

In calendar 1993, total U.S.-Mexico trade amounted to $82 billion. More than 70% of all bilateral trade rides on long-haul freight trucks.

 

But Mexico is the No. 2 buyer of U.S. exports - after only Canada. Mexico's purchase of $148 billion in U.S. exports in 2010 easily doubled China's imports from the U.S. last year. even though Chinese imports from the U.S. are growing fast.

 

Frustrated by an inability to exercise its NAFTA rights -- initially intended to open the U.S. border states to Mexico truckers by 1995 and the rest of the U.S. by 2000 -- Mexico used its NAFTA trade dispute rights to impose stiff tariff penalties on 99 U.S. products from 40 U.S. states that prior to 2009 had accounted for $2.4 billion in annual U.S. exports to Mexico.

 

The new agreement ensures that Mexico will provide reciprocal authority for U.S. carriers to engage in cross-border long-haul operations into that country. 

 

The Mexican economic pressure in the 40 U.S. states led to loud cries by producers and exporters to their members of Congress and U.S. Senators to find a solution to end their economic pain.

 

As part of the trucking accord, Mexico agreed to begin to relax half of the tariff penalties it had applied to U.S. export products since March 2009 when U.S. President Barack Obama's signature on an omnibus budget bill also effectively killed a U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking demonstration project launched in 2007 by the previous Administration of President George W. Bush.

 

Last March, U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon reached a political accord in Washington to settle the long-standing cross-border trucking issue and ordered their respective governments to work out the details that resulted in the July 6 agreement, LaHood said. 

 

The bilateral agreement reached July 6 enables the U.S. to fulfill its commitments outlined in the NAFTA accord on long haul cross-border trucking services and will directly benefit producers, exporters, consumers and carriers, making trade between the United States and Mexico more efficient and competitive, LaHood said in his statement.

 

Some private estimates indicate that a permanent solution to the long-haul-cross border dispute could slash cross-border trucking costs by as much as $400 million each year.
More than 70% of U.S.-Mexico trade moves on long-haul freight trucks. The first phase of the implementation of the program will take at least 18 months of oversight, certification and supervision, the two governments indicated.

 

In a separate, but related Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the White House's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Secretar�a de Econom�a (Trade Ministry) of the United Mexican States, Mexico said it will suspend 50% of the retaliatory tariffs within 10 days.

 

Mexico agreed to suspend the remainder of the tariffs on U.S. exports within five days of the first Mexican trucking company receiving its U.S. operating authority.

 

As a result, Mexican punitive tariffs that now stand at 5% to 25% on a diverse set of U.S. agricultural and industrial products, including apples from Washington state, certain pork products from Iowa, and personal care products from across the U.S., would be immediately cut in half and disappear entirely within a few months. 

 

Mexico, however, reserves its rights under NAFTA to reinstall the retaliatory measures in the case of non-compliance with the agreement.

 

 "By opening the door to long-haul trucking between the United States and Mexico, America's third largest trading partner, we will create jobs and opportunity for our people and support economic development in both nations," LaHood said.

 

"I thank President Calderon and Secretary Perez-Jacome for their leadership and for their partnership as we build a safer, more prosperous future for North America and the world," LaHood added.

 

ANALYSIS: The apparent clear solution for this intractable political football - the long-haul, cross-border trucking dispute - carries great political and economic significance.

 

For Mexico, the U.S.' refusal to uphold the terms of its own NAFTA accord bled over to many other key issues. Mexico's strategic economic program is based on being a Top 10 exporting power to the world and a global platform for international trade.

 

This key issue with its biggest bilateral trading partner (almost 70% of total Mexico trade is with the U.S.) was a matter of national principle.

 

Enforcing its free trade rights with the U.S. had implications for Mexico's 12 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) covering 44 nations, including its North America neighbors, the 27-nation European Union, the Asia Pacific Economic Conference forum (APEC) nations and FTAs covering 9 nations in Central and South America, more than any other nation with that ascending economic region.

 

For the U.S., the nation's inability to uphold its commitments in the NAFTA agreement on cross-border trucking undermined its credibility and authority on U.S.

commitments in other international trade agreements.  

 

The trucking dispute solution comes just days after the Obama Administration reached agreement with Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled U.S. House to bring forth a vote on passage of three important U.S. free trade agreements.

 

The agreements are with Colombia, Latin America's No. 3 economy after Brazil and Mexico; with South Korea, a powerful economy on the rise in Asia; and with Panama, whose Panama Canal Authority is on track to complete the doubling of capacity of the canal by August 2014, dramatically lowering international trade freight costs.

 

As a result of today's signing of the MOU, Mexico will suspend 50% of the tariffs applied to the 99 U.S. products subject to the current retaliatory measures. The other 50% of the tariffs will be suspended as soon as the first Mexican carrier is granted operating authority in the United States.

 

Mexico reserves its rights under the NAFTA to reinstall the retaliatory measures in the case of non-compliance.

 

After the previous cross-border trucking program was terminated in March 2009, Secretary LaHood and other Obama Administration officials met with lawmakers, safety advocates, industry representatives and others to address a broad range of concerns, which the Department took into account as it worked with Mexico to develop a new program.

 

LaHood noted that the final program published in the Federal Register today addresses the recommendations of over 2,000 commenters to the proposal issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in April.

 

As a result of these meetings, and in consultation with Mexico, trucks will be required to comply with all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and must have electronic monitoring systems to track hours-of-service compliance.

 

In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation will review the complete driving record of each driver and require all drug testing samples to be analyzed in Department of Health and Human Services-certified laboratories located in the U.S. 

 

The Department will also require drivers to undergo an assessment of their ability to understand the English language and U.S. traffic signs.

 

Mexico said in a statement the July 6 agreement will allow for carriers originating in Mexico and the U.S. to operate permanently in both countries after enrolling in a new program and complying with all of the safety procedures of each country.

 

The new program is composed of three phases:

 

1.    The pre-authority phase which consists of a review of the companies' documentation, vehicles and drivers. Participants must also comply with safety and environmental standards and insurance requirements.

2.    During the provisional authority phase participating carriers will be inspected upon each entry into the other country for the first three months. Before 18 months of operation a final Compliance Review of carriers will be conducted.

3.    In this final phase carriers who passed the Compliance Review will be granted permanent operating authority allowing them to operate throughout both countries.

INCENTIVES TO URGE FREIGHT USE OF NATURAL GAS GROWING

     Clean Energy LNG Fuel Truck
Clean Energy natural gas fuel tanker
 

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - Several developments in the past week showed use of natural gas as a fuel for U.S. freight truck transportation - a goal supported by NASCO Coalition members -- gaining momentum, if up from a very modest base.

 

On January 11, Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma City announced an ambitious plan to step up efforts to create greater demand for natural gas freight transport usage that included news that it will invest $150 million in Clean Energy Fuels Corp. of Seal Beach, Calif., part-owned by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens Jr., to build natural gas fueling stations for truckers along key interstate highways.

 

Chesapeake Energy is the largest producer of natural gas from the Barnett Shale, the large shale rock natural gas producing basin under the area surrounding Fort Worth, Texas, and the shale rock development that has inspired a North American natural gas production boom in other shale rock basins in Texas, Louisiana, the East and across the continent.

 

Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon said in a statement that the investment in Clean Energy Fuels is an effort to help underwrite about 150 liquid natural gas (LNG) truck fueling stations, "increasing by more than tenfold the number of publicly accessible LNG fueling stations and providing a foundational grid for heavy-duty trucks to have ready access to cleaner and more affordable American natural gas fuel along major interstate highway corridors."

 

Chesapeake, the statement said, seeks to invest in enough publicly accessible compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling stations "to reach a tipping point where original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of all vehicular classes will have sufficient confidence to increase their production of CNG and LNG vehicles and provide American businesses and consumers access to vehicles that run on a cleaner fuel made by and for Americans that should be approximately $1.50 - $2.00 per gallon cheaper than gasoline and diesel."

 

Meanwhile, in Texas, a new state incentive package to accelerate the conversion of heavy duty trucks to natural gas engines and the development of fueling station infrastructure between Dallas-Fort Worth and other major Texas cities has been signed into law to take effect Sept. 1.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed the so-called "Texas Clean Transportation Triangle" bill in June. The measure makes available $8 million a year for converting freight trucks to natural gas and $2 million a year for building natural gas stations on the key freight Interstate Highways 35, 45 and 10.

NASCO is a member of the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex Natural Gas Vehicle Consortium headed up by
Fort Worth-based TCU Energy Institute and backed by numerous natural gas producers and green transportation advocates, including NASCO.

"When the state [of Texas] does something like this bill, it makes people move a little faster and assess the option a little more seriously," said Lynn Lyon, Irving-based Pioneer Natural Resources' manager of strategic projects for domestic operations told the Dallas Business Journal. "It helps them if they need a little help with the initial funding to make this kind of investment."

ANALYSIS: Chesapeake is so convinced of the economic attractiveness of its corporate plan to focus on fuel transport use of natural gas that it has staked out several key initiatives. "... We are redirecting approximately 1-2% of our annual drilling capital expenditures over the next 10 years, or at least $1 billion in total, to stimulate market adoption of CNG, LNG and GTL fuels," company CEO McClendon said.

The CEO said the firm also intends to take full advantage of the associated cost savings and emissions reductions by accelerating the conversion of all 4,500 of Chesapeake's light duty and 400 of its heavy duty fleet vehicles to run on CNG, which will reduce fuel costs by an estimated $15-20 million per year. In addition, the firm is converting at least 100 of its drilling rigs and all its planned hydraulic fracturing equipment to run on LNG.

The firm noted that just converting rigs and hydraulic fracturing equipment will cut the company's diesel fuel consumption by approximately 350,000 gallons a day and save the company approximately $230 million annually, bringing overall CNG and LNG fuel savings to approximately $250 million.

"The use of natural gas as a freight transportation fuel reduces air quality issues of diesel and gasoline, is more economical for carriers, is greatly available from domestic resources and is a way to cut back on the more than $400 billion annual crude oil import bill of the U.S.," according to the web site of the American Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA).

The NASCO interest in natural gas as a freight transport fuel along the NASCO Corridor is based on the Coalition's profound understanding of the importance to the corridor's future economic development and competitiveness represented by air quality issues.

As was shown in the cases of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, air quality problems that represent a threat to public health can sharply curtail the attractiveness of a region for investment and job creation and impede normal, natural growth.

By necessity, both ports are now national and world leaders in "Green Port" environmental best practices, their shared groundbreaking effort to restore the region's economic competitiveness and reduce transport fuel emissions' negative impact on public health.

Last week, U.S. diesel prices averaged $3.85 a gallon, U.S. gasoline prices averaged $3.57 a gallon, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. In North Texas, compressed natural gas (CNG) was selling for about $2.40 a gallon and liquefied natural gas for about $2.65, Lyon said.

A study conducted by the Texas Clean Transportation Triangle group found that replacing 550 diesel-burning trucks with natural gas trucks would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95,410 metric tons over 10 years.

The Texas Clean Transportation Triangle, a natural gas industry consortium with more than 200 stakeholder companies across Texas, advocates for building a network of natural gas fueling stations between Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

The consortium projects that it will cost $82 million to put 550 heavy duty natural gas vehicles on the road and add 13 new natural gas fueling stations - all open to the public - between the cities. There are now 15 CNG stations in the state, including a few in Dallas.

The Texas incentive is weighted toward new freight transport vehicle engines, Lyon said, because businesses will build fueling stations once the new vehicles spur demand for them.

It is expected that the financial incentives in Texas could lead to several companies building out such natural gas fueling stations in the next two years.

Industry leaders say building out retail CNG stations with one dispenser costs about $700,000, while stations with two to four dispensers cost about $1.5 million.

The new Texas incentive bill covers both CNG and liquefied natural gas (LNG). CNG is generally used for lighter vehicles. LNG is generally preferred for heavier vehicles that cover longer routes.

 

ONTARIO LEADS CANADA IN GROWTH AND JOB CREATION IN JUNE

Ontario logo   

OTTAWA -- The Province of Ontario created more jobs than the rest of Canada and the U.S. combined in June, according to figures released recently by Ontario's Ministry of Finance.

The data showed Ontario gained more than 40,000 jobs in June, more than double the number of jobs created in the United States for the same month.

In June, the U.S. added solely, 18,000 net jobs and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.2% of eligible workers from 9.1%.

The job growth is taking place based on seven straight quarters of Province of Ontario economic growth and higher business capital investment.

Data showed 57% of all new Canadian jobs were created in the Province of Ontario during the last six months -- the vast majority full-time positions, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

The Province of Ontario unemployment rate declined to 7.7% in June from 7.9% and Ontario total employment is now above its 2008 pre-recession peak.

Since the Harmonized Sales Tax reform was introduced last year, the Province of Ontario economy has generated 114,000 net jobs, the majority of them full-time positions, according to the Ministry of Finance.

In 2010, Ontario was named a top destination for foreign direct investment in North America, second only to the State of California. The province attracted a total of 127 foreign direct investment projects that created more than 11,200 jobs.

In the first quarter of 2011, Ontario's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the annualized value of total output of goods and services) rose 0.8% (a 3.2% annualized rate).

Provincial GDP has increased 5.6% over the past seven quarters and is now above its pre-recession level. The Ministry said the Province of Ontario's inflation-adjusted GDP grew 2.8% in 2010

A recent forecast by Canada's leading Royal Bank of Canada projects the province's GDP growth in 2011 to come in at 3.3%, its highest annual growth rate since 2000.

Analysts indicate the Ontario Tax Plan for Jobs and Growth, born during the recession, has brought stability to the provincial economy by lowering income taxes for families and businesses, and introducing tax changes -- including the Harmonized Sales Tax -- to make Ontario more competitive.

The plan is helping the province attract new investment and jobs, and protecting key public services like schools and hospitals.

ANALYSIS: In comparison to the Province of Ontario economic performance, U.S. employers added only 18,000 jobs in June, far fewer than economists expected, dramatically drawing attention to the subpar U.S. recovery from the 2008-2009 economic recession, the U.S.' worst in 80 years.

The U.S.' dismal job creation resulted from continued layoffs at budget-strapped governments. The U.S. private sector added 57,000 jobs while federal, state and local governments cut 39,000 positions last month.

On July 1, 2010 the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) took effect in Ontario replacing the federal goods and services tax (GST) and the provincial sales tax (PST).

During the recession, many economists and business leaders backed replacing the PST with a single value-added tax, like the HST, as the most important change the Ontario government could make to strengthen Ontario's economic competitiveness.

The PST was charged on many purchases made by businesses in manufacturing goods and providing services.

It penalized businesses by taxing them at every value-added step in production, distribution and retail business efforts, in effect converting the PST into "a tax on a tax on a tax," according to a statement by the Ontario government.

The PST, it has been estimated, cost Ontario businesses $4.5 billion Canada annually in hidden sales taxes. The tax resulted in higher prices for consumers and placed Ontario's businesses at a competitive disadvantage versus other regions and nations.

Ontario is providing over $4.8 billion in tax relief over three years, including Corporate Income Tax (CIT) cuts starting July 1, 2010: with general rates lowered to 12% from 14% and to 10% by 2013; corporate income tax rate on manufacturing, processing, mining, logging, farming and fishing lowered to 10% from 12%; and small business income tax rate cut to 4.5% from 5.5%.

The levy on capital already was eliminated in 2007 for companies in manufacturing and natural resource development. But the Ontario tax reform of 2010 extended to all other businesses, capital tax rates down 33% on January 1, 2010, with total capital tax elimination carried out on July 1, 2010.

Most businesses now receive input/component/module income tax credits for sales tax they pay on many of their purchases and capital investments, providing significant business savings.

The harmonization of provincial/federal tax systems now means a single set of forms, point of contact and estimated savings of more than $500 million a year in tax compliance costs, according to the Ministry of Finance.

A March report by University of Toronto professor Michael Smart, Canada's leading economic expert on the impacts of sales tax harmonization, noted the effect of the provincial tax changes in their first six months showed about 66% of the new input tax credits given to businesses have been passed on to Ontario consumers in lower prices.

Further savings are expected to be passed on to consumers over time, he said in the report.

The province's own economic analysis had forecast solely that 20% of business tax savings would have been passed on by businesses to consumers in the first year of the new tax structure. 

CHICAGO MAGAZINE INTERVIEW OF CENTERPOINT PROPERTIES CEO

 

 

CenterPoint Properties CEO Michael MullenWith appreciation from July 2011 issue of Chicago Magazine



CHICAGO'S BIGGEST INDUSTRIAL LANDLORD TALKS RAIL

As the largest industrial landlord in the Chicago area, CenterPoint Properties invested $3 billion to turn thousands of acres at the old Joliet, Illinois US Army Arsenal into a vast intermodal rail facility, with millions of square feet of warehouse and manufacturing space.

 

Michael M. Mullen is the CEO and co-founder of CenterPoint Properties. CenterPoint is the largest owner, manager and developer of industrial real estate in metropolitan Chicago. With its affiliates, the company owns, leases and manages approximately 33 million square feet and has an additional 7,000 acres of property for future development.

QUESTION: With 70% of U.S. rail freight passing through the Chicago area, you're in the catbird seat. How did that happen?

I got a 12-year head start. [The federal government] had a little auction, and I was the only one who showed up. The Joliet Arsenal is a Superfund site. But arsenals have to be served by two Class I railroads, so Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific [each now operating huge terminals at the arsenal] could both get to the site. Walmart has 3.4 million square feet [of warehouse space]. It unloads 100,000 containers a year [to truck goods to its stores]. You're at I-55 and I-80. That's Main and Main for the trucking industry.

QUESTION: Where's all the freight coming from, and why does it pass through Chicago?
 

These two facilities are totally West Coast-[their

freight comes from] Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver. Chicago is the only place in the U.S. where the six Class I railroads meet. For the foreseeable future, we will be the distribution center. But we shouldn't take it for granted.


The thousands of warehouse and distribution jobs created aren't as high paying as the manufacturing jobs the region has lost, but they're better than flipping burgers. What's the job outlook at your rail properties for 2011 and beyond?

We will see more distribution jobs.

And we're hoping to see some light manufacturing and assembly jobs. Our owner, CALPERS [the giant California state pension system], pays us extra for environmental gains. Each train takes 300 trucks off the road. But the second thing we're supposed to do is create union construction jobs [with all the building at the Arsenal]. And the railroads are hiring-thousands of jobs [nationally].

QUESTION: Routing trains to the arsenal and away from older rail yards in Chicago should help prevent the shipping bottlenecks that have occurred during every economic boom. Other benefits to the region?

[Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel is going to get a lot of land to develop. The intermodal facilities in the city are going to pick up and come out here. Developed, that land will produce more property taxes for the city and more economic activity.

QUESTION: What's the lead-time on these major projects? How do you protect yourself from downturns, or can you?

To do an intermodal [facility] from talking to opening is four years. It's not for the faint of heart. You spend tens of millions of dollars optioning property before you have a railroad agreement. Burlington Northern was designed to be a 12-year build-out. Union Pacific is 15 years. We do economic modeling. We build in a recession or two. The balls was the Union Pacific. We broke ground in 2008 [as the economy was imploding]. They forged ahead. Now they're already expanding.

 

QUESTION: In the United States, we have a great freight rail system and a crummy passenger rail system, the opposite of Europe. Would adding high-speed interstate rail, as Obama wants, screw up the freight system, as some have asserted?



I'm totally in favor of high-speed rail as long as it runs parallel-on separate tracks-to the freight system. But don't screw up the freight system. It's working too well now.

Interview conducted and condensed by Jeff Bailey

 



For more information or to submit story ideas contact:

 

Frank Conde

Director of Special Projects & Communications

North America's Corridor Coalition, Inc.

T 214.744.1018

 
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NASCO HIGHLIGHTS
TransHub Ontario

AS NEW MEMBER

TransHub Ontario logo for web 
NASCO is honored to include among its membership TransHub Ontario, a newly created organization formed to promote and develop Hamilton, Ontario, Canada's role as a critically important transportation gateway between Canada and the USA and the province and the world.

TransHub Ontario is a non-for-profit organization, founded by CareGo Innovative Solutions Inc., Hamilton International Airport Ltd., and the Hamilton Port Authority.

Richard Koroscil, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce's current chair, and Demetrius Tsfaridis, chief executive officer of Carego Group, co-chaired a committee to create Trans Hub. The concept of the need for the entity emerged from a study done by McMaster University's Institute of Transportation Logistics and Management (MITL), one of Canada's leading transport research institutions.

MITL studied Hamilton's potential as a gateway for the movement of goods. By definition, a gateway is a convergence point for rail lines, truck routes, sea- or lake-shipping facilities and air transport.

The MITL report said by virtue of its multiple transport and cargo assets, Hamilton already served as a gateway but could benefit from an entity devoted to helping Hamilton and the region position and promote itself as such to attract infrastructure capital capable of further spurring freight transport development.

"Transporting and the movement of goods is an economic enabler," Koroscil, the inaugural Chair of the Board of TransHub Ontario, says. "It provides a service that all businesses need. When our regional assets are viewed as an integrated intermodal system, it is like a multiplier effect."

Hamilton, a city of about 500,000 residents, has become the center of a densely populated and heavily industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as "the Golden Horseshoe." Since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the ninth-largest city in Canada and the third largest in the Province of Ontario.

"The Golden Horseshoe," is the nickhame for the area from Oshawa, Ontario around the west end of Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls, with Hamilton at its center. The whole region has a population of approximately 8.1 million people, almost a third of the entire population of Canada.

The organization's mission is to serve as a strategic, transport-focused, non-profit gateway organization to promote and develop transportation and logistics best practices from around the world to enable economic development in southern Ontario.

TransHub Ontario is an integral part of the Ontario-Quebec Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor formed on July 30, 2007, when the governments of Canada, Ontario and Quebec signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate to further develop this vital trade and travel transport corridor.

The central location of the Continental Gateway facilitates international trade and the domestic inputs towards foreign trade with the United States and other key trading partners.

The Continental Gateway includes strategic ports, airports, intermodal facilities and border crossings as well as essential road, rail and marine infrastructure that ensures this transportation system's connection to, and seamless integration with, Canada's other gateways: Asia-Pacific and Atlantic.

Trans Hub Ontario's efforts focus on uniting stakeholders to increase the
competitiveness of the regional transportation and logistics industry and to benefit the broader
provincial and national economies, the environment and the community.

TransHub Ontario's motto is "moving the world through southern Ontario." It reflects the group's goal to leverage the benefits of TransHub's location in Hamilton, the linchpin of trade and transportation through the most populous and economically powerful province in Canada.

Southern Ontario's significant catchment and market, coupled with an efficient gateway system that
provides access to rail, road, marine and air systems, creates a significant competitive
advantage many companies can exploit and use to grow their business and add jobs.

Trans Hub Ontario is comprised of a range of public and private entities focused on promoting and developing Southern Ontario as an environmentally sustainable goods movement gateway.

Trans Hub Ontario investors, transportation and logistics company members, work together with the public, and local, regional and federal governments to achieve the entity's mission.

By creating a seamless, efficient multi-modal transportation network throughout Southern Ontario, TransHub Ontario will attract businesses and industries looking to relocate or expand.

John Dolbec serves as president and chief executive officer of Trans Hub Ontario, a position he assumed last March after holding the post of chief executive officer of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce for 13 years.

For more information click on TransHub Ontario

UPCOMING EVENTS

OF INTEREST


important date graphic

 


Mexico's Top Manufacturing & Consuming Regions Utilizing
Port Laredo
  

Presented by: Laredo Development Foundation

 

September 21-23, 2011

Laredo, Texas

 

*LDF is a member of NASCO! There will be a BIG NASCO presence at this event - in our new President's hometown.

 

3rd Annual North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum      


Presented by: CG/LA Infrastructure

  

October 11-13, 2011 

Washington, D.C.    

 

*For the 2nd year, NASCO will be a supporting organization at this event. CG/LA is also a new NASCO member!

 

18th ITS World Congress  
 

Featuring ITS Annual Meeting & Exposition 

  
Presented by: ITS America
 

 October 16-20, 2011

Orlando, Florida 

 
16th Annual Fields on Wheels Conference

 
Presented by: University of Manitoba Transport Institute

September 30, 2011

Winnipeg, Manitoba

*The Transport Institute is a member of the NEC.

 

7th Annual Supply Chain Connections Conference
 

Mid-Continent Cold Chain:  

Opportunities & Challenges

 

February 9-10, 2012  

 Winnipeg, Manitoba

 

18th ANNUAL LOGISTICS & MANUFACTURING SYMPOSIUM IN LAREDO

SEPTEMBER 21-23, 2011

LDF 2011 symposium graphic

Join NASCO and our partners at the 18th Annual Logistics & Manufacturing Symposium in Laredo this September!

18th Annual Logistics and Manufacturing Association Symposium


Hosted By:
Laredo Development Foundation & Community Partners
 

September 21-23, 2011 

Texas A&M International University

 
 
This year's Symposium theme is entitled "Mexico's Top Manufacturing and Consuming Regions Utilizing Port Laredo."  The Symposium will focus on certain fundamental attributes that govern a port's ability to become a leader in facilitating global supply chains.

These attributes are transportation and communications infrastructure, port and border administration, market access, and the overall business environment.  

 
In addition, the Symposium will focus on the right balance for future port capacity and infrastructure.  Port capacity and infrastructure will be determined by the trade, the customer, the size of the port, their proximity to the customer's distribution centers and distribution network. 

 
Mexico's important manufacturing regions and major cities that support those regions in Northern, Central and Southwestern Mexico have been invited to participate at this year's Symposium.  

In addition, this year's Symposium will feature Keynote Speakers representing both the U.S. and Mexico:

Alan Bersin, Commissioner, U.S. Customs & Border Protection,

Lic. Gerardo Perdomo Sanciprian, General Administrator, Mexican Customs,

Carlos Palencia Escalante, Director General, National Council of Maquiladora &Manufacturing Industry, 

 
Luis Olive Hawley, Chief of Promotions, Investments and International Business, PROMEXICO

 
The full registration for the Symposium is $300 for LDF/LMA/LLUSCBA/ALFA member and $350 for non-member or $150 per day.  

For more information please visit the official conference website

 

2011 NASCO OUTLOOK PUBLICATION NOW AVAILABLE

2011 NASCO Outlook Thumbnail

 

***Click here to view the 2011 NASCO Outlook online.  

ABOUT NASCO 

North American flags

Since 1994, NASCO and its members have stood at the forefront of driving public and private sectors to unite to address strategically critical national and international trade, transportation, security and environmental issues. Our membership includes a diverse range of public and private partners from Mexico, the United States and Canada, extending along the International Corridor.

 

To learn more visit

www.nascocorridor.com