Conference to Focus on Trade Agreement : Border: Governors from Mexico and United States begin their 10th annual session in San Diego today.

California Gov. Pete Wilson and Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel of Baja California will preside over the Border Governors Conference, which begins its 10th annual meeting in San Diego today with an agenda centered on the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement.

Wilson, a strong proponent of the agreement, knows the U.S.-Mexico border from a long political career launched in San Diego. Ruffo, the first opposition-party governor ever elected in modern Mexico, symbolizes Baja’s position on the forefront of political and economic change reshaping Mexico.

The two men will be joined by the governors of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and the Mexican governors of Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Chihuahua. The conference, at the Convention Center and the adjacent Marriott Hotel, will run through Friday.

As it has for several years, the potential impact of the free trade agreement in the border states will dominate the proceedings. If approved, the pact is expected to further accelerate growth in a region where industry and prosperity from trans-border economic integration coexist with pollution, poverty and a burdened infrastructure.

In a recent interview, Ruffo said he sees the conference as an opportunity to strengthen existing bonds.

“We must talk precisely about how we will face the possible growth in a way that we can develop harmonically,” he said. The free trade agreement is going “to bring out the comparative advantages of the two countries. . . . We will become partners.”

The atmosphere of the conference is generally relaxed and spontaneous, Wilson spokesman Bill Livingstone said. He said Wilson and Ruffo, who know each other well, will probably meet privately at some point to discuss matters of particular interest to the Californias.

The governors and their staffs will hold workshops on such topics as the recently approved binational agreement to clean up the border environment; increased cooperation on auto theft rings that operate on both sides of the border and other law enforcement issues, and plans to expand border crossings to alleviate congested commercial and tourist traffic.

Representatives of the two country’s federal governments planning to attend include the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Jon Negroponte, his Mexican counterpart, Gustavo Petricioli, and Patricio Chirinos, head of Mexico’s environmental agency.

At least one group plans to hold a demonstration at the start of the conference Thursday. FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, will protest what it sees as the failure of U.S. and Mexican governments to discuss controlling illegal immigration as part of the free trade negotiations.

For vastly different reasons, both proponents and opponents of increased immigration from Mexico have criticized the two governments on this point, which has become increasingly prominent as U.S. presidential candidates debate the merits of the pact and the impact of illegal immigration.