International Commerce and Trade— Not As Foreign As You Think
In a constantly evolving world filled in with frequent and unexpected obstacles — for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, materials shortages, price escalation — the world of construction has become smaller and more reliant upon both national and international resources.
Many of these needed resources are readily available in our neighboring country of Mexico. Members of the United States Hispanic Contractors Association (USHCA) board and leadership team recently engaged in an international commerce and trade discussion with our allies from Mexico. The mutual goal of this meeting was to explore the forging of relationships to mitigate many of the obstacles and delays we face today.
The shortage of construction supplies, materials, equipment and professional services are struggles we contend with daily. We recently met with some of our neighbors from Mexico, including a delegation of enterprising business leaders, organizations and suppliers, who came to discuss possible solutions. We are gracious to the Mexican Consulate for kindly hosting the meeting space. We were extremely pleased to have met with Juan Francisco Collado, the co-founder of Allianza, an alliance of Mexico based corporations with the capability and desire to provide resources and industry- related products to our members in the United States.
Ruben Supulveda Aceves, the Director of Construction for COFOCE (The Department of International Economic Development for the State of Guanajuato) made the journey to our beautiful city and along with Juan Francisco Collado, ALLIANZA, cofounder who introduced us to a number of representatives from Mexico based companies. Each of them described their capabilities to provide much needed products for project needs ranging from infrastructure, commercial and residential.
Although we recognize the potential challenges associated with cross border deliveries, we believe the collective ability of our colleagues based in Mexico to address the deficit of much needed construction products in the U.S. merits further examination from USHCA membership.
We will be continuing our conversations in the spirit of formalizing a more structured collaboration between the numerous industry relevant companies based in Mexico to provide our members with a more comprehensive understanding of product types and availability, including pricing and reliable timing of delivery.
In the interim, should you have questions or suggestions to offer, please feel free to contact our office.
On a nostalgic note, in 1992 when we formally incorporated the United States Hispanic Contractors Association, one of our first national conference events held outside of Texas proudly adopted the theme, “Building Inclusion by Eliminating Exclusion.” Today, some 30 years later, and with the help of members like yourselves we continue to build inclusion. We are now presented with the opportunity to further this inclusion with the help of our international partners.
