Border Conference to Urge Projects by Private Industry

Addressing a major concern of opponents of the North American Free Trade agreement, the Clinton Administration plans to press for new roads, power plants and other public improvements along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown and four other Cabinet-level officials will join Mexican officials in a two-day conference beginning today in San Antonio. They will encourage private industry to build transportation, energy and environmental projects along the 2,000 miles of border shared by the two countries.

About 400 financiers, builders and local government officials from the two countries are expected to attend.

Mexico is the United States’ second-largest trading partner and its fastest growing export market. Brown expects that trend to accelerate, and said $15 billion to $20 billion will be needed in the next 10 years to handle increased border traffic and development.

The Administration hopes to spark new partnerships between border towns, which need roads, power plants, recycling and waste disposal facilities and other improvements, and the private builders and lenders U.S. officials hope will provide the bulk of the money, enticed by the potential earnings that user fees and tolls could generate.

Brown sought to dispel suggestions that the conference is intended to build momentum for what is expected to be a difficult battle in Congress over ratification of NAFTA, which would join the United States, Mexico and Canada in a tariff-free trade zone.

But he acknowledged that part of the purpose of the conference is to address concerns cited by opponents of the trade agreement. “Clearly there is some connection with NAFTA, although that is not the connection we’re pushing,” said Brown, who will join Luis Colosio, Mexican secretary of social development, in presiding over the conference.

Among those Brown hopes to assuage are environmentalists who worry that economic growth in Mexico, where environmental regulations are less strict, would increase pollution. They point out that some rivers along the border are already choking on pesticides and industrial wastes long banned in the United States but still permitted in Mexico.

Brown said the projects he considers most urgent are facilities for water and sewage treatment, solid and hazardous waste disposal and recycling.

He said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner will attend the conference to address environmental concerns about NAFTA and border development.

But Brown stressed that trade agreement politics would not be the focus. “This is not a theory conference,” Brown said. “This is a how-do-you-get-projects-built conference.” Brown showed reporters a book his office prepared for the conference that contains specific proposals for new roads, bridges, affordable housing, energy plants and sewage treatment centers. Most would be built in Mexico.

Many could be funded through traditional means such as municipal bonds, Brown said, but a goal of the conference is to discuss more creative options, including allowing private companies to build and operate the facilities until they receive ample returns on investment and turn them over to local authorities.

Such privately funded projects abound in both countries, including toll roads in Mexico and power utilities in the United States. But securing private funding for waste water treatment and other environmental facilities is a relatively new idea and could prove to be more challenging, Brown said.

Also attending the conference will be Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary, and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena.

The conference begins one day after Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Rep. Ronald D. Coleman (D-Tex.) introduced legislation to create a United States--Mexico Border Health Commission to examine health-related concerns, including pollution, created by development of the border region.