International

ACCESS

Open now: A world of opportunity within easy reach in a city where strategic location and multimodal transit position your enterprise for rapid and comprehensive access to transcontinental and global markets.

bridge over river

Gateway to Mexico

Just minutes away, Harlingen’s international bridge to Mexico offers pass-through times for commercial vehicles that are the shortest in South Texas. Leverage all of the opportunities opened by the USMCA (the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, replacing NAFTA), with rapid access to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and its flourishing cross-border maquiladora commerce. Mexico’s maquiladora plants, which import equipment and materials and export assembled products, are a preferred strategy for the world’s top manufacturers, and Tamaulipas is home to thriving operations of companies such as LG, Panasonic, Emerson Tool and Appliance, Bissell, Corning, and Black and Decker. Tamaulipas accounts for 33% of Mexico’s international trade, with approximately 250 maquiladora plants in Matamoros and Reynosa alone. That’s opportunity at scale, easily accessed.

Gateway to the World

Valley International Airport sign

While the Port of Harlingen offers access to the Gulf Coast’s top deep-water ports via the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, businesses can also ship via air with the wide-bodied cargo jets of FedEx, DHL and other major shippers through Valley International Airport.

Infrastructure for international connection

Harlingen is built to connect through:

  • Just 25 minutes from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, the shallow-draft Port of Harlingen expands your international shipping options through access to Gulf Coast ports including major ports such as Port of Houston, Port of South Louisiana and Port NOLA in New Orleans, while also opening extensive domestic reach from Brownsville to Boston. The multimodal Port also opens access to Mexican markets through UP Class I rail connecting to Kansas City Southern (now CPKS), the region’s Class I cross-border rail provider.

  • Just minutes from Harlingen, the Los Indios Bridge, Gateway to Mexico, is your rapid connection to maquiladora opportunity as you add speed and deduct hassles with the fastest pass through times for commercial vehicles in South Texas.

  • A designated NAFTA CargoPort™️, VIA is considered the “Air Cargo Hub of the Rio Grande,” served by leading carriers like FedEx, Southwest Air Cargo, DB Scheneker, DHL and Continental Airlines Cargo. A $32 million facilities upgrade has made VIA a state and national leader. To accommodate larger aircraft, the airport now offers a 9,400-ft. runway, the longest in South Texas, while two new ILS (instrument landing systems) cut aircraft approach times in half. With the installation of a $3 million fiber circuit, VIA is now the nation’s only airport with a 100% fiber circuit.

  • Broadband service includes connections to eight of Mexico’s largest telecommunications companies.