The teeming warehouses carved into the desert surrounding Laredo, Texas, attest to an explosion of trade between the United States and Mexico.On a recent morning, 55-gallon drums full of chemicals concocted in Ohio awaited trucks that would haul them across the Rio Grande, for use as raw materials at a paint factory in Mexico’s industrial city of Monterrey. Destined northbound, brake pads manufactured in Mexico were headed to trucking firms as far away as South Dakota.The more trade expands, the greater the opportunities for Laredo, a sprawling city of over 250,000 people that has long been the dominant land port on the meandering border between the United States and Mexico. Now, it is poised to become an even more vital component of the global economy. American companies …
