Ross Perot’s Mexican Blunder : Why knock one of America’s best customers?

The Ross Perot/Al Gore show didn’t go over big in Mexico. The billionaire’s ludicrously stereotypical depiction of the Mexican economy during Tuesday evening’s internationally televised debate on the North American Free Trade Agreement was a slap in the face to that nation. Newspapers, politicians and many others in Mexico rightly are upset.

Perot, the loudest of NAFTA’s opponents, flashed pictures of Mexicans living in cardboard hovels. He claimed that all 85 million of the people living in Mexico are poor. “People who don’t make anything cannot buy anything,” the Texan said repeatedly.

The facts are that 15% to 20% of Mexico’s population is considered middle class and less than half lives below the poverty line. Mexican consumers spend more per capita on American goods than European and Japanese consumers.

Mexico is the third-largest customer for U.S. exports. To tap into that market, U.S. discounters like Wal-Mart and Price Club have opened stores there, and Mexican consumers account for billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods and services purchased at stores across the border, from San Diego to Brownsville, Tex. If NAFTA is approved, U.S. goods--freed of Mexican tariffs--will become cheaper and more affordable in Mexico.

Perot is a smart businessman. So his crackpot caricature of our southern neighbor as virtually peso-less and hopelessly backward perhaps can best be explained as an unfortunate reaction to the severe pressure of being in an unprecedented debate. Mexico, despite its problems (and which nation doesn’t have any these days?), is a nation of enormous potential, enhanced by one of the world’s most admired and intelligent national cabinets. Whatever the outcome of next Wednesday’s congressional vote on NAFTA, the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari deserves worldwide plaudits for its efforts to modernize Mexico’s economy.

Alas, the Clinton Administration is still short of votes needed in the House to pass NAFTA. Uncommitted members of the California delegation alone make up almost half the votes needed for approval. They include:

Bill Baker (R-Danville)

Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles)

George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton)

Anna G. Eshoo (D-Atherton)

Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar)

Howard P. McKeon (R-Santa Clarita)

Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose)

Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale)

Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy)

Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles)

Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles)